A white paper sponsored by Bit9, entitled Getting the Job Done: Comparing Approaches for Desktop Software Lockdown, looks at various techniques for detecting and preventing the installation and execution of unauthorized software.

"Allowing users to install or execute unauthorized software can expose an organization to a variety of security and legal risks, not to mention the burden of increased support costs," writes author Brien M. Posey.

"It is important to lock down workstations for a variety of business and technical reasons," Posey writes. "The strange thing is that a business’s needs and the needs of the IT department are often one and the same, but for different reasons. A perfect example of this is the fact that an unauthorized piece of software has the potential to affect system stability."

Click here to access the Bit9 white paper.