Most organizations lack visibility and control relative to their passwords and privileged users, according to a study of more than 100 organizations conducted by identity and access threat prevention solution provider Preempt Security.Key findings from Preempt's study included:
Today's organizations require a proactive approach to cybersecurity, Preempt indicated. With an effective cybersecurity strategy in place, an organization – regardless of size or industry – can analyze its cybersecurity posture and prepare for cyber threats.
- 97 percent of organizations had at least one security issue.
- 72 percent had stealthy administrators, i.e. end users with excessive administrative privileges that could be used or manipulated by malicious actors.
- 61 percent had more than one account with stealthy administrator privileges.
- 32 percent of networks had some passwords exposed in their group policy preferences; any authenticated user could recover these passwords.
- 23 percent of networks had a very weak password policy, and 5 percent had a strong password policy.
- U.S.-based organizations ranked first in terms of best password quality, followed by European organizations.
- Researchers cracked 6 percent of U.S. passwords, compared with 12 percent of passwords in Europe and 18 percent of passwords from other regions.
- Researchers cracked 9 percent of passwords in large organizations (more than 1,000 employees), compared with 10 percent in mid-sized organizations (100 to 1,000 employees) and nearly 17 percent in small organizations (less than 100 employees).
