Sure, you’re an IT pro, but are you an IT peeping tom? According to a recent survey conducted by Cyber-Ark Software, one in three IT workers admit to using their IT privileges to gain access to employees’ confidential data. Yep, 33 percent of you are snooping through your company’s systems and reading through private information such as wage data, personal email messages, and HR files.
Many users probably harbor, at one time or another, the suspicion that IT might be using the privileged passwords they require for malicious purposes. But to see survey results such as these—which also report that the same percentage of IT pros say they can still access the company network after leaving a job, with no one to stop them!—is sobering.
According to Cyber-Ark, more than 200 IT pros participated in the survey. One of the surveyed respondents asked, “Why does it surprise you that so many of us snoop around your files? Wouldn’t you if you had secret access to anything you can get your hands on?”
Another respondent said, “It’s easy for an employee to update the personal password to their laptop, but to change the administrator password on that same machine? It would take days for IT to do them all by hand. In the end, we just pick one password for all the systems and write it down.”
Calum Macleod, European director for Cyber-Ark, said he was surprised by the results. “Gone are the days when you had to break into the filing cabinet in the personnel department to get at vital and highly confidential information. Now all you need to have is the administrative password and you can snoop around most places, and it appears that is exactly what’s happening. Companies need to wake up to the fact that if they don’t introduce layers of security, tighten up who has access to vital information, and manage and control privileged passwords, then snooping, sabotage, and hacking will continue to be rife.”
Microsoft Learning Snack - Green IT Through Virtualization Many organizations face rising operating costs caused by excessive energy consumption. Virtualization and "Green IT" can help cut these costs. Get the information you need to bring Green IT savings to your business.
Order Your Fundamentals CD Today! Register today for your in-depth copy of one of three Fundamental CDs on the following topics – Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint.
Microsoft Learning Snack - Virtualization Basics With virtualization, computing components essentially become on-demand services, freeing each element of a system from the others. This short video explains the needs, benefits, and technologies behind virtualization.
Microsoft Learning Snack - Virtualization Basics With virtualization, computing components essentially become on-demand services, freeing each element of a system from the others. This short video explains the needs, benefits, and technologies behind virtualization.
Empower Your Processes with PowerShell 201 Paul Robichaux delves deep into PowerShell how-tos in 3 informative lessons, each followed by live Q&A—all on your own computer! Register today!
Microsoft Learning Snack - Green IT Through Virtualization Many organizations face rising operating costs caused by excessive energy consumption. Virtualization and "Green IT" can help cut these costs. Get the information you need to bring Green IT savings to your business.
New Release: Windows IT Pro Master CD 13 years of content archives, fast answers with advanced search tools, and full access to WindowsITPro.com—order today!
Register
