To counter the misuse of privileges, enterprises must mitigate insider threats and the associated costs and clarify, not confuse, rank vs. privilege. In addition, internal perimeters must be secured across physical, virtual and cloud-based computing platforms used daily by your insiders: employees, contractors and partners.
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Accident Prone Annie
Though difficult for many to admit, humans are fallible. We are not perfectly consistent in our principles personally or professionally. Accidental misuse of privileges on desktops and servers does happen, and it does have a measurable impact on the organization as a whole. For example, desktop configuration errors cost companies an average of $120/PC, according to IDC report, “The Relationship between IT Labor Costs and Best Practices for IAM.” Annie is your typical business user who accidental may be misusing their privileges to do things that are against corporate policy (i.e. downloading software off the web or upgrading applications before IT approves) and reeking havoc on the help desk.
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Compliance Carl
Most business and IT executives alike tremble when Compliance Carl comes around because they know their practices and systems will be scrutinized. Carl is your classic auditor- responsible for regulatory compliance reporting and auditing of IT policies for enforcement of corporate governance. He comes in and makes sure bad things can’t happen when the accident-prone employees are around. Business and IT executives have a generalized fear of him because of the black and white nature of a compliance audit. At the end they will either pass or fail. A failing mark can mean anything from small policy changes required to massive financial fines. Because these decisions are almost solely at the discretion of the type of Compliance Carl you have in your organization, the difference between the “Holmes/Judy” version can be dramatically different that the “Simpson/Two-face” version.
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Disgruntled Dave
Intentional misuse of privilege often stems from insider attacks. An insider attack is defined as any malicious attack on a corporate system or network where the intrudqer is someone who has been entrusted with authorized access to the network, and also may have knowledge of the network architecture. This is where Dave comes in. He was once a trusted insider with privileged access to critical IT infrastructure, but circumstances have changed such that he is now unhappy with the status quo to the point where he is intentionally doing harm such as stealing, modifying or deleting data and/or planting malware.
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Least Privilege Lucy
Every company needs someone to call whenever something technical needs to be done. Whether its deploying a new physical server to upgrading software versions and patches or rebuilding damaged systems courtesy of the latest malware attack, Least Privilege Lucy is this person. She's an average network or systems administrator responsible for administrating systems and/or infrastructure, and she is doing things correctly. Depending on the size of your company, Lucy could be one "jack of all trades" or one hundred specialists each focused on a specific operating system, platform, geography or business unit. The unifying characteristics include one part technical wizard, one part fire fighter, one part customer service representative, one part project manager and one part CSI forensic analyst.
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Identity Thief Irene
Indirect misuse of privileges is when one or more attack types are launched from a third party computer that has been taken over remotely. A startling statistic revealed by Gartner is that 67% of all malware detections ever made were detected in 2008. Gartner also estimates managed desktops, or users who run without admin rights, produce on average a $1,237 savings per desktop and reduce the amount of IT labor for technical support by 24%. Irene is an outsider who has hijacked the credentials of an unsuspecting, over-privileged insider and uses those credentials to steal, modify or delete data and/or plant malware.
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Secure Sam
Ever see how a duck glides through water? It looks effortless from the surface, but beneath the waterline is a different story. In reality the poor duck is paddling his web feet feverishly in order to move about. That's what it's like to be a Chief Security Officer (CSO) or an IT manager responsible for managing today's enterprise security requirements and compliance mandates. One of these, or some variation thereof, is ultimately the title Secure Sam holds in your organization. At face value the successful Secure Sam projects an air of calm control over the enterprise governance and risk mitigation requirements. Behind the scenes he/she is a whirling dervish of politician meets technician meets mind reader meets soothsayer all served up with one great big stress sandwich.
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