Re: Administrative v/s power user Access for Staff and students

["Stanclift, Michael" <michael.stanclift () ROCKHURST EDU>]

All of our staff/fac are limited to power users on their machines.
Students are just normal users.

Michael Stanclift
Network Analyst
Rockhurst University

http://help.rockhurst.edu<http://help.rockhurst.edu/>
(816) 501-4231

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Anand S 
Malwade
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 12:32 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Administrative v/s power user Access for Staff and students

I was wondering what other universities are doing in limiting administrative access on Desktops and laptops for Staff ?
The rationale being as we know that enterprise workstations run as administrator also makes the network vulnerable to 
malware including viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, adware and unintentional user damage. Malware can exploit a local 
administrator account's system-level access to damage files, change system configurations, and even transmit 
confidential data outside of the network. Ensuring that all users run as standard users is the primary way to help 
mitigate the impact.
Has anyone tried giving Power User level access as opposed to full admin rights and if yes what was the overall 
experience ?

Thanks,
Anand


Anand Malwade
Information Security Officer,
Seton Hall University,