The Relevance of Administrative Privileges

Past vs. Present

In the past, particularly 10 to 15 years ago, businesses managed administrative rights through servers. Users connected to these servers as standard users, which restricted their ability to install or change software. However, the landscape has shifted significantly. Nowadays, most businesses, even those with up to 100 users, rely on cloud services and hosted platforms. Unfortunately, this shift has led to many users having local administrative rights, allowing them to make significant changes, including potentially harmful ones like executing ransomware.

This change poses a considerable security risk. When users have administrative privileges, they can inadvertently introduce malware or ransomware. Restricting these privileges can dramatically reduce such incidents. In fact, studies show that 9 out of 10 successful cyber attacks are caused by user actions. By removing administrative privileges, most of these attacks, particularly ransomware, can be prevented.

Benefits of Restricting Administrative Privileges

1. Reduced Ransomware Risk: By limiting what users can do, the introduction of ransomware and other malware is minimised.
   
   
2. Increased Productivity: When users can’t install unnecessary software or games, they are more likely to focus on work tasks, boosting productivity.
   
   
3. Lower Support Volume: With fewer users making changes to their systems, there’s a significant drop in support requests. This means less downtime and more efficient operations.