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Microsoft Staff Faces Change In Status
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-05-23
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Securing the Windows desktop could start at home, with employees of Microsoft facing the prospect of losing admin rights when they move to the Vista operating system.
Microsoft has not decided yet whether or not its employees will continue to enjoy full control over their PCs, or if they will have to accept limited user access rights after the Vista upgrades take place within the company.
ZDNet Australia reported on a conversation it had with Microsoft internal security director Mark Estberg. He commented on the possibility of that change within the company:
"We haven't made that final determination yet. We would like to absolutely look at scenarios where we can look at elements of User Access Control -- that is the feature in Vista -- so that we can start moving in that direction," said Estberg.
"It is a tough balance and every company has to decide what is right for them,"
Right now the status quo will remain in place. "At Microsoft, for a very large population of our employees, we have decided that admin rights is the right balance for us," he said in the article.
Those rights allow users to install any software they like on a company PC, without requiring the assistance or approval of a system administrator. It's very convenient for the users, but should someone pickup a piece of malware with the ability to traverse a network, the effect could be devastating.
That's the reason why virtually all companies restrict users, particularly non-technical staffers, to the ability to turn on their machines and run software they need for their work. And even that isn't a complete cure for all of the viruses and malware a user could encounter online.
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Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Access Rights
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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