BeyondTrust Fine-Tunes Privilege Management in Windows Vista

Security vendor BeyondTrust is introducing a version of its Privilege Manager software this week that safeguards Windows Vista environments by limiting end users' systems permissions to run only the applications and functions workers need to do their jobs.

Concerns about Microsoft's User Account Control are a bit over-stated. Since the early betas, UAC has been cleaned up a lot in response to user feedback. It doesn't present nearly as many problems as it once did. That said, BeyondTrust is a much more powerful framework that allows enterprises more granular control and flexible security. The company is taking the basic concept of least privilege and implementing it in a way that's actually achievable on Windows, which is impressive. Jordan Wiens NWC Contributing Technology Editor, Security

Privilege Manager 3.0 invokes the principle of least privilege to prevent users from installing, accessing or running malware or other potentially harmful software or applications on their Windows Vista systems. By locking down access to just the privileges workers need to perform their assigned tasks, the software alleviates a host of threats while still letting end users perform authorized tasks, according to BeyondTrust. Privilege Manager also provides IT with a tool to enforce compliance with corporate computing policies.

BeyondTrust is positioning the software as an alternative to Vista's UAC (User Account Control), which the security vendor says causes more problems than it solves. Vista's UAC asks end users to enter administrator account credentials to run software that exceeds standard privileges. BeyondTrust says providing end users with administrator user names and passwords can lead to a slew of security problems and administrative headaches.