Preventing Good People From Doing Bad Things: Implementing Least Privilege

In today’s turbulent technological environment, it’s becoming increasingly crucial for companies to know about the principle of least privilege. These organizations often have the best security software money can buy, with equally developed policies with which to execute them, but they fail to take into account the weakest link in their implementation: human nature. Despite all other efforts, people can sway from what they should be doing.

Preventing Good People from doing Bad Things drives that concept home to business executives, auditors, and IT professionals alike. Instead of going through the step-by-step process of implementation, the book points out the implications of allowing users to run with unlimited administrator rights, discusses the technology and supplementation of Microsoft’s Group Policy, and dives into the different environments least privilege affects, such as Unix and Linux servers, and databases.

Readers will learn ways to protect virtual environments, how to secure multi-tenancy for the cloud, information about least privilege for applications, and how compliance enters the picture. The book also discusses the cost advantages of preventing good people from doing bad things. Each of the chapters emphasizes the need auditors, business executives, and IT professionals all have for least privilege, and discuss in detail the tensions and solutions it takes to implement this principle. Each chapter includes data from technology analysts including Forrester, Gartner, IDC, and Burton, along with analyst and industry expert quotations.

What you’ll learn

• Why unlimited administration rights are a bad thing
• Why least privileges is a good solution
• Effective implementation of least privileges
• Least privileges on Unix and Linux servers
• Issues with Microsoft's Group Policy

Who this book is for

The audience is segmented into three separate categories, all of which are clearly addressed and weighed-in on in each chapter: the auditor, the businessman, and the IT professional.

About the Authors

Brian Anderson brings more than 25 years of global enterprise software and security industry experience to BeyondTrust, where he will be responsible for all aspects of corporate brand development, lead and demand generation to increase awareness and interest in all customer and investor segments. In addition, he will be responsible for building a VAR channel to expand distribution for BeyondTrust products globally. Prior to BeyondTrust, Anderson served as a serially successful chief marketing officer for several venture-funded companies. At Siderean Software, his branding efforts garnered rave reviews and numerous awards, including “innovator” status in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. At Avamar Technologies, his leadership resulted in a huge revenue increase and numerous awards. Avamar was subsequently acquired by EMC. Prior to Avamar, Anderson was director of marketing at IBM’s Tivoli Security and Storage, a role he inherited after successful building industry leader Access360’s brand and sales pipeline through successful positioning for a sale to IBM. Anderson also served as chief marketing officer of HNC Software, which experienced tremendous growth during his tenure and was successfully acquired by Fair Isaac in 2002. Anderson served for seven years prior to HNC at FileNet Corporation, culminating in his role as vice president of worldwide corporate marketing. At FileNet, Anderson built a tremendous global channel organization that ultimately represented almost 50 percent of the company’s revenue. He received his bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of New Orleans.

John Mutch has been an operating executive and investor in the technology industry for over 25 years and has a long, sustained track record of creating shareholder value through both activities. Prior to joining BeyondTrust as chief executive officer in 2008, Mutch was a founder and managing partner of MV Advisors, LLC, a strategic block investment firm which provides focused investment and strategic guidance to small and mid-cap technology companies. Prior to founding MV Advisors, Mutch was appointed by a U.S. bankruptcy court to the board of directors of Peregrine Systems in March 2003. He assisted that company in a bankruptcy work out proceeding and was named president and CEO in July of 2003. Mutch ran Peregrine Systems, operating the company under an SEC consent decree, restating five years of operating results and successfully restructuring the company, culminating in a sale to Hewlett Packard for $425 million in December of 2005. Prior to running Peregrine, Mutch served as president, CEO and a director of HNC Software, an enterprise analytics software provider. Under his leadership, the company nearly doubled revenue and successfully spun out Retek in an IPO which returned more than $2.5 billion to shareholders. HNC Software was sold to Fair Isaac Corporation in August of 2002 for $825 million. Prior to HNC Software, Mutch spent seven years at Microsoft Corporation in a variety of executive sales and marketing positions. He previously served on the boards of Edgar Online (NASDAQ: EDGR), Aspyra (Amex: APY), Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) and Brio Software.

Mutch currently serves on the board of Adaptec Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT) as a director designee of Steel Partners and the board of Agilysys (Nasdaq: AGYS) as a director designee of Ramius Capital. He holds a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago and a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University, where he serves on the advisory board for the undergraduate school of business.