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Microsoft Employees May Lose Admin Rights
daria42 writes "As Microsoft moves its internal desktop systems to Windows Vista, the company is contemplating whether to change a long running tradition and take away admin rights from its employees in order to improve security." From the article: "'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 ... It is a tough balance and every company has to decide what is right for them,' said Estberg. However, Estberg said that for the moment, the company will continue to leave the responsibility of installing software with its employees."
they'll probably just install linux instead :-O
Now maybe Media Player will work properly on non-admin machines, or do they all use winamp?
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
It happened to me when I mistakenly typed "su" instead of "du".
I wonder what made them think about it in the first place... too much Banzai Buddy?
"By the same logic, if he has no good reason for what he says, he is just making noise and we need pay him no attention.
How will they install Firefox then?
The employees instead of typing the admin password will actively look for holes to get the admin rights, spot them and eventually later patch them. Things like "cancel" button in Win98 login screen won't get overlooked :)
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Think I'm exaggerating? Why do you think I don't have those jobs anymore?
;)
Maybe it was because you're prone to exaggeration and it was interfering with your job performance
I got hired at a 'mom & pop' to be the general IT jack of all trades. They had a peer to peer network running with some wierd ip scheme some consultant setup. Of course I setup a file server as well as upgraded the PCs from win 98/95 to XP. I took away local machine admin rights. Well in a couple of days I got support calls from all the old ladies who worked there. Their webshots no longer worked plus they couldn't install those damn web games. I was able to hold out by throwing around some technobabble and scaring the boss about all those security risks on the internet. Well after a few weeks serious support calls dropped to nothing. After setting up a linux box to run mysql and developing some applications in VB to replace the myriad of excel files they use,I had run out of projects. Between boredom and the boss eyeing me everytime he passed my office, I enabled local admin rights again. Lets just say between cleaning spyware and adware I've been staying busy.
If Microsoft forces its employees to run as non-admin users... ...If only we could make stupidity more painful...
I suddenly felt a disturbance in the Force. It was as if thousands of non-admin users cried out at once and then suddenly rebooted...
Seeing as they have already denied many rights to non-Microsoft people, they were looking for another segment of humans to restrict. It seems they have found it.
That's why we have instated a super-secure system. First of all, our su doesn't sit in /bin/su. Instead the file gets copied to a random place in the file system with a random filename at random intervals. Of course this is not logged, in order to improve security. Also, the only computer where it's possible to get root access at all (we use a special version of the Linux kernel that does not allow local users to become root and immediately detects any attempt to do so on all other computers) sits in an hermetically sealed room with three redundant sets of motion detectors that can only be disabled by the CEO, the CIO and our lawyer, respectively. A fourth set of motion detectors ensures that there is never more than one person in the room. The floor of the room is made up of 2x2" tiles, most of which are pressure sensitive and are not ever to be touched. The touchable tiles are dispersed in a semi-random pattern; the administrator has to know which ones are rigged, dancing a delicate ballet while passing the fifty meters between the door and the computer. Authorization itself requires the use of a special key, a keycard, two passphrases, a fingerprint, a tongue print, a retina scan, a blood sample, a sperm sample and a spoken passphrase, which is a tonguetwister in Frisian, spoken backwards. When in root mode the administrator has to press a key at least every five seconds but not faster than twice per second.
If at any point anything unusual is detected our sensitive corporate data is automatically protected from being compromised as C4 charges in the walls and floors are detonated, immediately annihilating the entire building and everything within ten meters of it.
Some say that our approach might be a bit too proactive, but =%&/(&%/%&$/"$?=(/)&%=/%/)+NO CARRIER
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)