Administrator accounts need stronger governance because they can control systems, data and recovery.
Most organisations focus heavily on ordinary user access, but the greatest cyber risk often sits with privileged accounts. These include administrator accounts, domain administrators, database administrators, cloud administrators, service accounts and third-party support accounts.
If a privileged account is compromised, attackers may be able to disable security tools, access sensitive data, create new users, spread malware or interfere with backups. For this reason, privileged access should be identified, limited, approved, monitored and reviewed.
Why this matters
Privileged access is a governance issue as much as a technical issue. Management should be able to answer who has privileged access, why it is required, when it was approved, whether it is still needed and how activity is monitored.
What management should consider
- Maintain a complete register of privileged users and service accounts.
- Avoid shared administrator accounts where individual accountability is required.
- Apply multi-factor authentication to privileged access.
- Use separate administrator accounts rather than ordinary user accounts with elevated rights.
- Review third-party and vendor access regularly.
- Monitor privileged activity and investigate unusual behaviour.
- Remove privileged access promptly when staff or providers leave.
Common pitfalls to avoid
Using shared administrator accounts.; Leaving old vendor or leaver accounts enabled.; Failing to monitor privileged activity..
Key takeaway
Privileged access should never be informal, permanent or invisible. It should be controlled because it represents one of the highest-risk access categories in the organisation.
Practical first step
Produce a list of privileged users and service accounts, then challenge whether each one is still required and appropriately protected.
How Nexia SAB&T can assist
Nexia SAB&T can assist with privileged access reviews, Active Directory reviews, identity and access management assessments and cloud access reviews.
Author details: Rob Galetti | IT Audit and Cybersecurity | Nexia SAB&T
Date: 23 September 2026
