Re: Restricting PC Admin Rights

["Barton, Robert W." <bartonrt () LEWISU EDU>]

It is a user issue, but don’t forget about lateral movement of viruses (viruses can be ‘dormant’ in a file on the 
network), that mistakes happen, and that if a user account falls into the wrong hands.  They all add up to an issue 
that can be resolved; a bank of 30,000 had few to no regular users with local administrator rights, or a way to 
escalate.

Your BYOD should be segmented off to their own network with less direct access to resources.

On the statistics (misuse of admin privs vs other vectors), I would have to go hunting (I know they are out there).  
I’ve been following the suggestions of expert articles, and an onsite review.  But here is an related tidbit.
[cid:image003.jpg@01D4332F.3B1B9590]

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/02/26/1047257/94-of-microsoft-vulnerabilities-can-be-mitigated-by-turning-off-admin-rights

Robert W. Barton
Director of Information Security
Lewis University
One University Parkway
Romeoville, IL  60446-2200
815-836-5663

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> On Behalf Of randy
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2018 5:44 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Restricting PC Admin Rights

Interesting thread. I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the problem we're trying to solve?
    a. Seems to me the problem isn't a user having admin rights, rather, it's a poorly trained user with admin privs 
that' the problem. So, why not create a training program for people who want admin privs? Seems to me that's a win-win. 
We get an extra set of eyes to help spot problems, users get the flexibility they want/need. I saw an earlier post 
saying you need a highly responsive support infrastructure to help users do their job. If your IT staff can't handle 
immediate requests for users, then we get in the way of their job.
    b. What about BYOD? I'm sure most of us are heavily into BYOD which means those users already have admin privs. 
Which brings me back to training.

2. Are there metrics showing the ratio of breaches caused by misuse of admin privs vs other vectors? Whether a user has 
admin privs isn't going to affect their files being hit by a ransomware attack.

Just curious.....
-Randy Marchany
VA Tech IT Security Office and Lab

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