Most of us have heard the term “Administrative Passwords” these are the “Super Power Passwords” that sit behind every workstation – it’s the password that once you know it you have access to the network and have the power to change anything and everything and to watch exactly what everyone is up to.
Behind every PC lies a Super Power Password, when you forget your own personal password you rely on an IT person to log you back on.This is one of the biggest concerns that most organizations have – they just don’t know how many people know the Super Power Password. And so it creates big taboo.
So if you are the Chairman of a large corporation, everything you do can be watched and monitored by all those who know the Super Power Passwords. They’ll know..
A recent survey by Cyber-Ark into Super Power Passwords found that approximately one-half of all enterprises have more administrative passwords than individual ones and up to 42% of these super-powerful passwords are never changed ! What’s really worrying about these figures is that once you’ve got the super power password the chances are that even if you leave you’ll still be able to access the system as they just don’t get changed.
If you feel like being malicious towards the company the best way of destroying it is to use the super power password and you can do untold damage once you’re into the network. So next time you think of the IT guys who do the techie stuff and little else think again – they’re really the big brother in your organization. If this scares you then think seriously about managing your administrative passwords and put in the right practices and policies so you know exactly who is in control.
In Microsoft Windows, if you want to reset the local “Administrator” password then do so:
Behind every PC lies a Super Power Password, when you forget your own personal password you rely on an IT person to log you back on.This is one of the biggest concerns that most organizations have – they just don’t know how many people know the Super Power Password. And so it creates big taboo.
So if you are the Chairman of a large corporation, everything you do can be watched and monitored by all those who know the Super Power Passwords. They’ll know..
- How much the CEO is being paid
- What his bonus is
- What websites he’s visiting
- Will be able to see his emails
- Find out about his personal affairs
- Know what’s happening to the share price way ahead of anyone else
A recent survey by Cyber-Ark into Super Power Passwords found that approximately one-half of all enterprises have more administrative passwords than individual ones and up to 42% of these super-powerful passwords are never changed ! What’s really worrying about these figures is that once you’ve got the super power password the chances are that even if you leave you’ll still be able to access the system as they just don’t get changed.
If you feel like being malicious towards the company the best way of destroying it is to use the super power password and you can do untold damage once you’re into the network. So next time you think of the IT guys who do the techie stuff and little else think again – they’re really the big brother in your organization. If this scares you then think seriously about managing your administrative passwords and put in the right practices and policies so you know exactly who is in control.
In Microsoft Windows, if you want to reset the local “Administrator” password then do so:
- Either you can: Right-click on the icon “My Computer“, Select “Manage“, “Local Users and Groups“, “Users“, right-click on “Administrator” and “Set Password“.
- Or go to the web page http://cern.ch/Win/operations/SetClientLocalAdminPassword (Change Local Administrator Password For a Client PC).
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