According to BeyondTrust's article, users who operate with administrator rights are much more Vulnerable to security risks than users who operate on limited rights.
I, personally, work for over 3 years now in Windows XP on a limited user account and whenever I need to install something or make modification to the registery or whatever that requires admin rights I just use the "Run As.." feature.
I've hadn't a single virus, trojan, BSOD (when related) or spyware or that stuff in the past 3 years.
some facts I grabbed out of the article:
90% of Critical Microsoft Windows 7 Vulnerabilities are Mitigated by Eliminating Admin Rights
Key findings from this report show that removing administrator rights will better protect companies against the exploitation of:
• 90% of Critical Windows 7 vulnerabilities reported to date
• 100% of Microsoft Office vulnerabilities reported in 2009
• 94% of Internet Explorer and 100% of IE 8 vulnerabilities reported in 2009
• 64% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2009
Companies and users are better protected against 81% of Critical Microsoft vulnerabilities by configuring users without administrator rights.
87% of vulnerabilities categorized as Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities are mitigated by removing administrator rights.
In 2009, exploits of 53% of Windows operating system vulnerabilities can be diminished by configuring users as standard users.
Of all Windows 7 vulnerabilities ever published, 57% are mitigated by removing administrator rights.
The Conclusion:
the source of the article is here:This report demonstrates the critical role that restricting administrator rights plays in protecting against vulnerabilities. It is important to note that this increased protection is achievable in one simple step without any impact on productivity — by implementing a desktop Privilege Identity Management solution. As companies roll out Windows 7 they need to include plans to implement a desktop Privilege Identity Management solution in order to reduce the severity or prevent the exploitation of undiscovered or unpatched vulnerabilities and to ensure that their users can operate effectively without administrator rights.
BeyondTrust 2009 Microsoft Vulnerability Analysis
you'll need to signup to see it (it's free).
on a more personal note, it's taking some getting used to when moving to a limited rights user but you'll quickly adjust and you can forget about viruses, tojans, spyware and other stuff that risks your computer!
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Originally Posted by dreamer
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