Cricket Victoria moves to flexible standard operating environment

Cricket Victoria’s largely mobile workforce posed a challenge to Rebecca Brown when she began working as IT Manager of the governing body. She soon realised that allowing staff administrator rights was an issue that had to be addressed.

“They could install whatever they wanted and they’d complain that their computer was slow,” she explained. “It was a big frustration when we realised their kids had been on the computer and installed games and those sorts of things.”

Brown attempted to combat the issue by removing administrator privileges from each computer but soon realised it would restrict remote staff who had to have an administrator password to install updates or extra programs needed in their work. She decided to deploy BeyondTrust’s PowerBroker for Desktop; a product that enforces minimum administrative privileges and permissions necessary for each user to run approved applications and allowed activities, including installations or software updates.

“A staff member can come to me and tell me what software they would like to install. I download it and add it to a group directory so other staff members can access it. Then, anyone who wants to download a piece of software can do so and I don’t have to leave my desk to put an administrative password into each computer,” Brown said.

Cricket Victoria reacted positively to the idea of the deployment; the business case was fairly straightforward.

“It centred on compliance and how our machines were susceptible to threats and malware if administrator rights were granted. The software would help us solve these problems.”

Brown felt BeyondTrust was the only product of its kind available on the market, and the deployment of PowerBroker for Desktop ran relatively smoothly.

“Rolling it out took about 48 hours,” she said. “All we had to do was make sure everyone who checks in on the network upgraded to the software via our group policies. The length of the rollout has been more about removing administrator privileges than installing the PowerBroker Software.”

Cricket Victoria now allows its staff to install additional licences and upgrade software, with the additional peace of mind regarding security.