Security

TH02 Zero Admins - Zero Problems

August 11th, 2022

8:00am - 9:15am

Level: Intermediate

Sami Laiho

Chief Research Officer

Adminize

In the new world of Zero Trust most companies are now aiming to get rid of local administrative rights for their end users. Sami Laiho has specialized in this field since 2002 and is the world leading specialist in his field.

Even the NT 3.1 User Guide states, that in Windows, there is no security if you give people local admin rights. Local admin rights give you the ability to bypass all company Group Policy / MDM -settings, take any logged on users’ identity, read/delete any files on the computer even with Deny ACLs, and probably the worst – the ability to breach the rest of the company systems.

Taking away end-user admin rights can lower the amount of Helpdesk tickets by 75%! Most people say that: “if I don’t have admin rights I can’t fix my computer” – No, in reality, it’s: “if you don’t have admin rights you can’t break your computer!”.

Most people think this hinders usability and is not possible for certain old apps, laptop users, or devs.

Sami has successfully taken away admin rights from all of these, in companies ranking from a single-person to a company with more than half a million users.

You will learn:

  • How to remote end-user admin rights without affecting productivity
  • How to reduce service desk tickets up to 75% and reimagining up to 60%
  • Why there is no security in Windows if you logon as an admin