BeyondTrust, the global leader in privilege delegation and authorization management, today announced PowerBroker for Desktops Free Edition as part of a new version 4.8 release of the PowerBroker suite. The free edition will enable network administrators to secure their Microsoft Windows desktops by running employees as standard users, while allowing elevated administrative privileges over a limited set of the most common system tasks without error messages or User Account Control (UAC) prompts. Using the free edition, employees can perform common tasks like defragmenting the hard drive and changing their system clock on their own without administrative credentials. This reduces the costs associated with helpdesk tickets for mundane IT tasks, while strengthening the desktop security posture, without the need to purchase any software.
“There are some tasks that users need to perform regularly, that are very low risk and too mundane and costly to bother IT with every time. We’re making it easier to remove administrative rights, without disabling the user from doing some things on their own,” said Saurabh Bhatnagar, VP of product management, BeyondTrust. “With the value that PowerBroker for Desktops Free Edition offers, there is simply no reason for an enterprise to not use it to enforce least privilege, especially while planning migrations to Windows 7.”
BeyondTrust’s award-winning PowerBroker for Windows Desktops (formerly Privilege Manager) software is implemented as a Group Policy extension. Organizations simply specify the privileges necessary for an application. These privileges will be added to the application process when it is launched enabling end-users without administrative privileges to run all authorized applications. PowerBroker for Windows Desktops reduces support costs and provides greater flexibility for maintaining standardized desktop configurations, such as those recently specified in the Federal Desktop Core Configuration mandate.
Based on an analysis of all Windows 7 patches published through March 2010, 90 percent of critical Microsoft Windows 7 vulnerabilities are mitigated by eliminating admin rights. Prompt fatigue with UAC persists for standard users in Windows 7. PowerBroker for Desktops is an essential element of the upgrade process for any effective least privilege implementation in Windows 7 environments.
The free edition of Powerbroker for Desktops can be easily upgraded to a licensed version for those organizations wanting to implement a full “least privilege” environment to facilitate privilege elevation in addition to the remainder of the system tasks not supported by the free tool.
For information on PowerBroker for Windows Desktop and to download the product for free, please visit http://www.beyondtrust.com/free-pbwd.