Howdy,
I was hoping to find a top 10 on this subject – reasons to not let users sign in as administrator, at Tech Republic. Maybe it’s here somewhere but I haven’t been able to find it. So I request your expertise.
I go through this at work every once in awhile.I have a devil of a time convincing my managers that users should not be allowed to sign in as administrator just because they think they have a need. I have to periodically remind my managers of the dangers. They are semi-convinced for a period of time, but then they tend to forget.
The other thing is that my managers insist on having one administrator login for all computers. I really hate that. Although only “senior staff” are supposed to know the admin login, it doesn’t take long before everyone knows it and are doing who knows what to the machines.
I am the 1 tech person for my department and I work closely with the 1 main tech person for the whole enterprise. He and I are in total agreement on these issues but neither of us carries much weight with the managers of my department. They are mavericks and do what they want to. Because they bring in so much money, the higher ups tend to let them do what they want to.
I am not strictly a tech person. That is, I have many other tasks to perform in my department, which is perhaps why I don’t carry the credibility that I should have? I’m telling the truth to these people about the dangers of letting anyone sign in as administrator, but again, since there hasn’t been a related incident for some time, the managers think that I am paranoid and overprotective of the computers.
So, I am hoping that reasons from you folks, who are fulltime techs, will carry more weight than I do. I am sure that many of the reasons you come up with are the same ones I stress, but coming from you it’s valid. Coming from me it’s not.
Actually, I like my job other than this vexing issue and would prefer not to quit.
Please, please help if you can. Thanks so much.
Stressed and Frustrated,
storch