- Adopt the four golden words of server security: lock down root access. Your IT manager should not be allowed to be “the hand.” With root access they have can look at, move, and/or manipulate everything. There is no one in your organization, under any circumstances, that should be allowed rule the world. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your IT manager would never do such a thing, or that a breach won’t happen to you. Chances are good that’s exactly what the University of Hawaii thought. If they had integrated a solution to lock down root access, 40,000 confidential student records wouldn’t have been exposed.
- Create and maintain a keystroke log. All actions should be transparent and a record must be kept. This way, in the event that a breach does occur, all keystrokes are documented for easy auditing and identification. This will also raise the flag on any suspected wrongdoing.
- Install a solution that will alert you to the use of any forbidden keywords. This will proactively keep your sensitive and mission-critical information protected while warning you about any employee or contractor who may potentially have the intention of harming your company.

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.