A question that we regularly get asked is “Why do I not have administrator rights to my PC?” actually we normally get asked “Why can’t I install software without entering a username and password that I don’t know?” and there is a very good explanation for this!
Recent analysis of security vulnerabilities reported between 2015 and 2020 highlights that 75% of Critical Microsoft vulnerabilities would be mitigated by removing admin rights across an enterprise. Meaning that unless the logged in user had administration security rights to the computer they were using they would not have been vulnerable to the threat. With that type of statistic, I am sure you would agree that it makes sense not to work day to day on your PC with admin rights!
Just because you don’t have the admin rights allocated to your account does not mean you are not allowed to know the details of an account that does and then you can, if your company policy allows obviously, use those details to carry out changes and updates when they are required.
At Morse we are acutely aware that IT should not be a limiter to you getting your job done and it should make your life easier and therefore we can provide you with the required credentials so that you can make changes to your PC. Now you may ask, and rightly so, “How is this more secure?”
Consider this, when you are happily surfing the web and you get prompted to enter admin credentials are you expecting it? No! Would you enter them? No! What would you do? Call Morse possibly, or maybe speak to a colleague who would suggest to call Morse! But if you were trying to install a valid update or new piece of software then you would be expecting it and if you know the credentials then you can carry on.
So, when we say that you can’t have admin rights to your PC, we don’t mean completely we just mean for your own protection you will be prompted to confirm that you really want to make a change and that simple question of “Are you sure?” will help maintain the security of your PC, the network and services to which you connect!
I hope this explains our policy but if anyone has any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to assist.
James.