Overcoming the Perils of Password Sharing in Enterprises - New White Paper

Sept. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- ManageEngine Password Manager Pro, a globally renowned enterprise password management solution has released a new white paper titled "Overcoming the Perils of Password Sharing in Enterprises".

Administrative passwords are omnipresent and all pervasive in enterprises of all sizes – big and small. Organizations depend on a variety of IT resources to sustain their businesses. Servers, databases, network devices and numerous other IT applications are controlled through administrative passwords, which are aplenty. Needless to say, administrative passwords are very powerful and accord unlimited privilege to the users. Those who login through the privileged mode could access absolutely anything with ease.

Typically, enterprises have thousands of privileged passwords, majority of which are used in shared environment. That means, a group of administrators use the common privileged account to access the resource. The privileged accounts are accessible to all the members of a team.

Apart from the ‘officially shared’ passwords, users often tend to reveal administrative passwords to their colleagues for some reason or other. The most common reason for such an ‘unofficial share’ is to cater to an emergency on one’s absence – IT Manager revealing the password to a senior member when he has gone on vacation.

Whether it is official or casual, sharing of privileged passwords in enterprises could have disastrous repercussions on the security of the enterprise. Mismanagement of administrative passwords leads to information theft, manipulations and sabotage without a trace.

It is always good to avoid sharing of administrative passwords. Unfortunately, it is just an ideal situation. Practical needs are mostly the opposite. Business requirements demand selective sharing of passwords with others and yet not compromising on enterprise security. Thus, enterprises find themselves in a catch-22 situation!

The ways to tackle this challenge, the importance of effective Shared Account Password Management and the need for enterprise password management solutions have been dealt with in this white paper. The white paper can be downloaded from
http://www.manageengine.com/products/passwordmanagerpro/p...

About Password Manager Pro

Password Manager Pro (PMP) is a web-based, Shared Account Password Management (SAPM) Solution for enterprises to control the access to shared administrative passwords of any 'enterprise resource' such as servers, databases, network devices, applications etc. PMP enables IT managers to enforce standard password management practices such as maintaining a central repository of all passwords, usage of strong passwords, frequent changing of sensitive passwords and controlling user access to shared passwords across the enterprise. It is available at costs affordable to SMBs.
For more details on PMP, visit  www.manageengine.com/products/passwordmanagerpro/

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Password Manager Pro (PMP) is a product division of ManageEngine, Zoho Corp. PMP is a secure vault for storing and managing shared administrative passwords and digital identities.