This issue was a constant battle when I was Art Director at an ABC affiliate. There were strong reasons both for and against local admin privileges. First, the for – I needed to install fonts (which commercial clients demanded), plugins, software updates and sometimes third-party software.
The against – all of the above as well – anytime you go out on the web you are risking the possibility of an incursion, especially when your location has many computers on a network, and a nice, juicy, corporate target! In my opinion, the fors outweighed the againsts. I would constantly have to track down our IT guy, who, to be polite, had no idea of the ins and outs of font installation and plugin installation. I would have to spend extra time walking him through the processes – essentially a waste of my time.
I never won this battle, but my feeling is that if you have someone who is aware of the risks, and willing to be careful, you’re likely to be safe giving them local admin privileges. The really strong side of my argument was that I was in charge of our graphic servers, their folder structure, and their contents. Yet I was not trusted for their safety. It’s a battle worth fighting though…
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com