“Although some sites had started planning or attrition of staff, many did not have a plan to address loss of key personnel. Now, you somehow allow everyone in the entire universe to open your front door through a shared key but they can only get into the porch. I once worked at a company (back in the day) that had a shared computer in a break room that people used to peruse the Internet (at burning ISDN speeds) and play games in 320x200 res LOL. You do not have a personalized key for every trusted person. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact Accounts used by a shared group of users typically have poor passwords that malicious actors can easily guess and that users do not change frequently or when a member of the group leaves,” ICS-CERT said in its latest Monitor report . It depends on what type of access/rights are you going to assign to that account. My Blog -- As long as its a normal user account there would be no risk. You should try to avoid shared accounts if at all possible. bad idea. Other cases included ICS components in public areas without any physical restrictions (i.e., locked doors or enclosures) to prevent access from a passerby. What are the pros and cons? In 2017, ICS-CERT conducted 176 assessments, which represents a 35 percent increase compared to the previous year. Assessments conducted last year by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) showed that boundary protection remains the biggest problem in critical infrastructure organizations, but identification and authentication issues have become increasingly common. Shared accounts offer no accountability if abused and overall encourages bad security practices (eg sharing a password). The first cons that I can think of, are that than if that user name and password goes into wrong hands, all my services can be access? Baseline Technologies. Your front door key gives access to everything. Password policies no longer apply. “[Shared and group accounts] make it difficult to identify the actual user and they allow malicious parties to use them with anonymity. tnmff@microsoft.com. Regularly … So, your house or apartment has a lock on the front door. “[Shared and group accounts] make it difficult to identify the actual user and they allow malicious parties to use them with anonymity. Leave it up to But you can limit the access a shared user account can have to your resources. The highest number of assessments were conducted in Texas (27), followed by Alaska (20), Nebraska (15), New York (14), Washington (13), Idaho (12), Nevada (10) and Arizona (10). In information technology, sharing is NOT caring! If more people know the credentials for logging in, that account is less secure. They can quickly turn on you, even under benign and safeguarded conditions. In addition to the auditing issue that other answers point out, shared-user accounts are inherently less secure than a single-user account on the same platform. Do you recommend to create a generic shared account on my Active Directory? Actually this is exactly the one example where you have a common access for all trusted people. Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. First Step For The Internet's next 25 years: Adding Security to the DNS, Tattle Tale: What Your Computer Says About You, Be in a Position to Act Through Cyber Situational Awareness, Report Shows Heavily Regulated Industries Letting Social Networking Apps Run Rampant, Don't Let DNS be Your Single Point of Failure, The Five A’s that Make Cybercrime so Attractive, Security Budgets Not in Line with Threats, Anycast - Three Reasons Why Your DNS Network Should Use It, The Evolution of the Extended Enterprise: Security Strategies for Forward Thinking Organizations, Using DNS Across the Extended Enterprise: It’s Risky Business.