This week, we will discuss the potential risks that can be posed to your business when using an internal system administrator, commonly referred to as a sysadmin.

Before we begin listing any risks, it is vital that you appreciate how helpful, integrated and crucial an internal system admin is. These employees know your business systems inside out, are able to resolve issues and develop your network in line with business requirements over the course of their employment.

This huge benefit also opens up potential risks, too. Your sysadmin, in most circumstances, has a lot of access to a wide variety of your business network. They manage accounts, rules, groups, access control, privileges and much more.

This level of access is almost unmatched by other employees, but it is required to make important changes to your network.

READ MORE: Vulnerable components – camscanner

The main issue that can arise with system administrators is primarily that, if there is an incident where they are frustrated, upset or unhappy with their position in the company, or they become disgruntled due to a change in the business that directly affects them.

Malicious system administrators have the potential to sabotage the network before they leave, placing automated scripts across the network to make critical changes to the network to cause inconvenience or disruption.

If you are ever dismissing your system administrator, ensure that their access is reduced as they hand over to a new member of staff, or consider garden leave to remove their access to the network during their notice period. It is important to remember that this is not an assumption that every system administrator is malicious, but instead a precaution and countermeasure to potential security incidents that may arise as part of the general leavers process when the system administrator has requested to move on.