NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Paramount Defenses, one of the world’s top cyber security companies, led by a former Microsoft security expert, today shared advanced cyber security insight on risks that target privileged users and administrative access account holders.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Government reported a massive breach of government employee records. In response to this breach, the White House ordered federal agencies to, amongst other measures, take immediate steps to identify and minimize the number of privileged users in their IT environments.
The insight shared by Paramount Defenses is intended to help federal agencies and organizations worldwide correctly and swiftly identify and minimize the number of privileged users in their IT environments, and implement adequate risk mitigation measures to reduce exposure.
PROTECTING THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - ADMINISTRATIVE AND PRIVILEGED ACCESS
From the U.S. Federal, State and Local Governments to the global Fortune 1000, the IT infrastructures of 85% of organizations worldwide are powered by Microsoft Active Directory.
In these IT infrastructures, administrative privileges for virtually all aspects of IT management, including data, computer and network security are provisioned in or controlled from Active Directory.
Over the years, in most Active Directory deployments, due to business driven access needs, large numbers of individuals have been granted varying levels of administrative and privileged access.
However, in most organizations, no one knows exactly who how many individuals possess what level of administrative access or privileged access because the underlying technical complexity makes it difficult to correctly audit effective access.
While IT personnel struggle to correctly identify privileged access account holders, proficient hackers can discover these accounts and compromise them to gain unrestricted administrative access.
The compromise of a single privileged access account, password or group stored in Active Directory could potentially result in the compromise of the entire IT infrastructure.
Thus, today the need to accurately identify and minimize the number of administrative and privileged access holders, and adequately protect them, has become mission-critical to business.
Quoting Mr. Tandon, CEO of Paramount Defenses – “100% of all major recent cyber security breaches worldwide involved the compromise and misuse of a single privileged user account holder. The need to precisely identify and minimize the number of privileged users in every organization is becoming paramount to corporate and national security today.”
PARAMOUNT CYBER SECURITY INSIGHT INTO PRIVILEGED USER ACCESS RISKS
To help organizations worldwide reduce the likelihood of a cyber security breach involving the compromise of a privileged user, Paramount Defenses shared authoritative insight covering the following privileged access risk management areas on its website –
1. Privileged User Identification
2. Impact of Compromise
3. Attack Surface and Vectors
4. Insider and APT Threat Sources
5. Privileged Access Risk Mitigation
This insight will help organizations understand these risks, correctly identify and minimize privileged user accounts, and tighten security policies and procedures for privileged users.
It includes a detailed illustration demonstrating how an insider or an APT could gain administrative access in any Active Directory deployment very quickly, and possibly compromise everything.
It also provides practical step-by-step guidance on how organizations can quickly and measurably mitigate the risk of the compromise of an administrative or privileged user in their environment.
This insight is publicly available online at - http://www.paramountdefenses.com/cyber-security-insight
ABOUT PARAMOUNT DEFENSES
Paramount Defenses is a pioneer and a worldwide leader in the administrative and privileged user access assessment and audit space. Its innovative, patented, Microsoft-endorsed effective-access assessment technology uniquely enables organizations worldwide to identify and minimize the number of privileged access account holders. Its global customer base spans six continents and includes several of the world’s most prominent organizations including the United States, British, Australian and Saudi Arabian Governments, Microsoft, IBM, Google and others.
Paramount Defenses is a registered trademark and Gold Finger is a trademark of Paramount Defenses. Microsoft, Windows and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
