At Infosec 2011 in London this week (Europe's largest information security trade show), a survey by BeyondTrust of over 50 first day attendees revealed that root password bad practice continues to be unchecked in many organizations.
Of those polled, over 58% said they would be able to steal information from a mission critical server if they wanted to. 35% of respondents revealed that the root password would be easily available because it was written on a post-it note, or white board in easy view of other employees. A further 29% said that they could obtain the root password simply by asking for it, even if they didn't have just cause for having it.
This, says Geoff Haggart, president of BeyondTrust International, shows the assumption that once someone has authorized access, that they won't misuse it. He continues: "Bad practice in the management of root password is still very much evidenced today, in spite of increasing data breaches caused by insiders (employees and third party contractors). However, as audit and compliance continue to focus on high risk assets, the need for better management of privileged access (who gets access to what and when) becomes paramount."
The survey responses in full were:
If you wanted to steal sensitive information from a mission-critical server in the company, do you think you could?
- Yes? 58%
- Maybe? 25%
- No? 17%
- Very easy (its written on a post-it or white board in easy view) - 36%
- Quite easy (I could ask someone who knows and they would give it to me on trust) 29%
- Not so easy (I'd have to bribe the IT Admin) 35%
- Climb Everest in a tutu? 25%
- Swim Naked across the Channel? 12.5%
- Lose your job and leave the country? 21%
- Leak information to a competitor? 11%
- Steal data from a mission critical server? 30%
Scott Lang, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at BeyondTrust
Scott Lang has nearly 20 years of experience in technology product marketing, currently guiding the product marketing strategy for BeyondTrust’s privileged account management solutions and vulnerability management solutions. Prior to joining BeyondTrust, Scott was director of security solution marketing at Dell, formerly Quest Software, where he was responsible for global security campaigns, product marketing for identity and access management and Windows server management.