New BeyondTrust Report Reveals Legacy Applications As Weakest Link in Enterprise Desktop Security
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IT Administrators and Help Desk Operatives say legacy apps such as Quickbooks and Sage, as well as in-house developed applications make managing desktop security the IT equivalent of the Wild West.
Carlsbad, C.A. and London , UK – January 24th 2011 – BeyondTrust, the global leader in privilege authorization management, access control and security solutions, today published research findings revealing the way legacy applications put enterprise network security at risk across EMEA and North America.
In a survey of 185 IT Administrators and Help Desk Operatives, collectively responsible for over 250,000 individual Windows’ desktops, BeyondTrust established the real reason why effectively managing network access from the desktop - whether in a company with 100 or 10,000 seats - is so fraught with difficulty.
“This report offers a revealing insight into the state of desktops today’ says Geoff Haggart, BeyondTrust President of International Sales ‘They are littered with legacy applications, many requiring Windows Administrator or Power User status to run, and so leaving IT Administrators caught between a rock and a hard place. Effective access management is practically impossible for them because adopting best practice of removing administrator or super user status, means shutting down applications the enterprise still relies on to conduct it’s business day-to-day.”
Key findings from this report show the following:
- In organizations with more than 2500 desktops, it was in-house bespoke applications (51% of respondents), and a range of ‘other legacy apps’ (40%) including old mainframe apps, Flash and Adobe Software, and rogue apps such as iPhone apps, and gaming software, which force IT Administrators to elevate privileges to Administrator or Super User status.
- In enterprises with fewer than 2500 desktops it was Intuit QuickBooks (33% of respondents), which most often forced IT Administrators to elevate network access privileges to the more risky Administrator or Super User status.
- IT Admins and Help Desk personnel say they spend more than 1/4 of their time fixing problems caused by over-privileged users, costing $1,000s per user each year.
- 90% of IT Admins and Help Desk personnel who admit to experiencing the headache of managing the impact of legacy apps would welcome help with automating the process of dealing with over-privileged users.
- Findings from IT Administrators and Help Desk Operatives confirmed by control group of 40 IT analysts and consultants.
In examining the hidden role of legacy applications in desktop BeyondTrust’s new report reveals why many IT Administrators today consider the desktop as the IT equivalent of the Wild West.
Geoff Haggart adds: “Legacy Apps make it increasingly difficult for IT Administrators to thwart attacks by people with legitimate access to an organization's computers, devices and networks. These insider threats represent a growing problem across the globe, frustrating admins, auditors and managers who lack the resources to properly identify them, oversee their behavior and protect mission-critical information technology (IT) assets from the misuse of privilege.”
The BeyondTrust 2011 Legacy App report is accessible in full for your review. Click Here.
About BeyondTrust
Founded in 1985, BeyondTrust is the global leader in privilege authorization management, access control and security solutions for virtualization and cloud computing environments. BeyondTrust empowers IT governance to strengthen security, improve productivity, drive compliance and reduce expense. The company’s products eliminate the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers in heterogeneous IT systems. More than half of the companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rely on BeyondTrust’s PowerBroker suite of products to secure their enterprises. For more information, visit www.beyondtrust.com
BeyondTrust, the BeyondTrust logo and PowerBroker are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries of BeyondTrust Software. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.