Privileged Passwords More Common Than Ordinary Passwords, Says Survey

Cyber Ark Software says the results of its 2006 Privileged Password Survey reveal that privileged passwords are becoming more common. Privileged passwords are the non personal passwords that exist in virtually every device or software application in a business. Completed

By None

Cyber-Ark Software says the results of its 2006 Privileged Password Survey reveal that privileged passwords are becoming more common. Privileged passwords are the non-personal passwords that exist in virtually every device or software application in a business.

Completed by more than 140 IT professionals, the 2006 Privileged Password Survey reveals that privileged passwords are far more common in enterprises than previously thought: approximately one-half of all enterprises contain more privileged passwords than individual ones.

The survey also reveals that up to 42 percent are never updated, an alarming prospect in today’s environment of increased audits and hacker attempts, says CyberArk. Half of the IT professionals surveyed revealed that they were concerned about audits, and 6 out of 10 stated that their organisation had been hacked.

Cyber-Ark says the reason privileged passwords are rarely updated is because many enterprises still manually change these key passwords. Approximately half of all enterprises have more privileged passwords than personal ones.

“Often organisations believe that because they have a small number of IT administrators, they can’t have many privileged passwords,” says Adam Bosnian, the Vice President of Products, Strategy and Sales for Cyber-Ark Software. “The truth is that privileged passwords come pre-loaded onto virtually every piece of hardware and software in an enterprise and are therefore extremely common. Simply put, these super-user passwords are the keys to your kingdom, and yet they are often left unguarded.”

«