Local Admin Accounts and Privilege Management is a deep dive into one of the most overlooked but dangerous weaknesses in enterprise security: excessive endpoint privileges. While zero-day exploits capture headlines, most breaches begin with something far simpler—a user laptop, contractor device, or field workstation carrying local administrator rights. This book exposes how such privileges act as a force multiplier for attackers, collapsing barriers, enabling lateral movement, and undermining core defenses like EDR, application control, and patching.

Structured as a complete program guide, the book moves from foundational concepts of privileges and accounts to the practical steps of discovery, baseline building, program design, and governance. It covers platform-specific controls for Windows, macOS, and Linux, explores modern elevation models such as Just-in-Time (JIT) and Just-Enough Administration (JEA), and connects privilege management to application control, monitoring, and incident response. Real-world case studies—including ransomware outbreaks, contractor credential misuse, and red-team assessments—illustrate how local admin rights repeatedly turn minor incidents into enterprise-wide crises.

Beyond technical fixes, the book emphasizes sustainable change. It teaches how to design auditable, user-friendly elevation pathways, replace convenience admin with managed workflows, and ensure compliance evidence is generated as a by-product of operations. It also addresses human factors, showing how to make the secure path the easiest path so that privilege reduction sticks across diverse teams, from developers to field technicians.

Written for analysts, engineers, IT administrators, and security leaders, Local Admin Accounts and Privilege Management reframes privilege reduction as a strategic discipline—one that improves not just prevention, but also detection, response, compliance, and long-term business resilience.