For any organization preparing to deploy Windows 7, security is no doubt a top concern. And while it goes without saying that the new OS offers significantly stronger protections than did Windows XP, there's always room for improvement.

Indeed, according to new research by BeyondTrust, a whopping 90 percent of critical Windows 7 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by removing users' administrator rights. Here's an enlightening quote from Steve Kelley, BeyondTrust's executive vice president of corporate development:

Our findings reflect the critical role that restricting administrator rights plays in protecting against these types of threats. As companies migrate to Windows 7 they need to be aware that despite enhanced security features on the new operating systems, better controls for administrative rights are still needed to provide adequate protection.

As you can see in the accompanying chart (which shows that "greater than 4 out of 5 of Critical Microsoft vulnerabilities in 2009 are mitigated by removing administrator rights"), there are serious security gains to be made by "configuring users to operate without administrator rights." Interestingly, the company's research found that fully 100 percent of Microsoft Office vulnerabilities could be mitigated in this fashion, along with 94 percent of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities.

Needless to say, this is a must-read report. The 38-page PDF is available for immediate download.

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