Helping Executives Understand Least Privilege

I think it's a given that each organization is different. With unique personalities and diverse corporate cultures, every enterprise is faced with a different set of challenges. Especially when it comes to IT priorities - every business places different importance and priorities in different places. Security is one of the areas, however, that every company has on the front burner. No one wants to show up as the next big data breach, and keeping critical information secure is the best way to avoid that. Project can succeed, fail, and go through significant loops, despite the best laid plans. One of the reasons projects can either succeed or fail is company leadership and management. Sometimes the right people just aren't involved enough to make certain projects go well. And on the flip side, sometimes they are too involved. And sometimes, the right people don't understand the vision of IT security that you may be trying to bring to pass. ON important matters like protecting critical information, determining the effectiveness of security programs, monitoring systems, and preventing and responding to security breaches, it helps to have high level executives in the know on different project and the information surrounding them. With this in mind, we've compiled 2 core practices your company executives should know when the conversation of keeping critical information safe comes up. These core practices will help you implement least privilege and help your executives understand the business value of having such a model in your environment. 1. Trust your staff, but don't rely on trust alone. Controlling user activity and managing privileged access to sensitive information is the key to keeping secure information just that: secure. Least privilege is the way to keep that information secure. 2. Monitor and log those that access critical information in real time. Knowing who is accessing what information and when allows you to stay on top of security instead of reacting to problems that may occur. By understanding these two essential security practices, your company's executives will understand the importance of least privilege and feel confident in the direction your enterprise security is heading. For more information on least privilege and how to implement it in your environment, check out this whitepaper