Privilege Identity Management Provides Essential Protection

Tying the record for the most security bulletins issued at one time, Microsoft released 17 bulletins addressing 64 vulnerabilities this week in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Visual Studio, .NET Framework and the Graphics Device Interface (GDI+). With all eyes on security this week, we thought it would be a good time to release our investigative report examining all of the vulnerabilities Microsoft published in more than 100 Security Bulletins in 2010, documenting and providing patches for 256 vulnerabilities. The key findings from the report show that configuring users to operate without administrator rights will better protect companies from the exploitation of:

• 75% of Critical Windows 7 vulnerabilities reported by Microsoft to date
• 100% of Microsoft Office vulnerabilities reported in 2010
• 100% of Internet Explorer and IE 8 vulnerabilities reported in 2010
• 64% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2010

Because vulnerabilities take time to identify and patches can take even longer to deploy, attacks and attackers are provided with a specific window of opportunity to infiltrate networks and exploit undiscovered weaknesses. However, by configuring users to operate without administrator rights, organizations can effectively immunize themselves from many of these zero-day threats. Implementation of a Privilege Identity Management solution enables desktop users to continue to access the applications required to do their jobs effectively, without unnecessarily putting the organization at added risk.