There’s dumb. There’s reckless. And then there’s using the same local admin password on every machine in your network.

I don’t say this lightly, but if you’re still doing this, you are guaranteeing a full-blown ransomware meltdown the moment a hacker gets in.

I’ve seen it happen—every single computer locked up, every single backup wiped out, total devastation. All because someone thought a single, shared password would be “easier.”

Easier? Sure. Easier for the hacker to own everything.

The One Password That Opens Every Door

Here’s how it goes down:

  • A user downloads “printer drivers” from a sketchy website.
  • That “printer driver” is actually malware.
  • Malware gets local access to the machine.

And then? The hacker gets unlimited chances to crack every password stored on that device.

It doesn’t matter if they only have user-level access—they will get the local admin password.

Why? Because:

  • Windows stores password hashes in memory (LSASS)
  • The TPM chip isn’t as secure as you think
  • Attackers can grab cached credentials from disk

And if every single device on the network shares that same local admin password?

Boom. They now own every machine.

They don’t have to hack. They don’t have to brute force. They just log in.

Lateral Movement: The Death of Your Network

If you’ve got one shared local admin password across all devices, you’re serving lateral movement to hackers on a silver platter.

It’s like a master key that works on every lock in your office. One break-in, total access.

And if your “solution” is to just log in as Domain Admin everywhere, I have some career advice:

Stop working in IT immediately. 

Seriously, you should not be in this industry. You are one compromised machine away from handing hackers your entire Active Directory.

And if you think Global Admin is better, congratulations—you’ve just made it worse. Now they have full control over your entire cloud environment too.

The Right Way to Handle Local Admin Accounts

You need unique local admin passwords for each machine. Period.

  • Every single device needs its own password.
  • That password should rotate after every use.
  • Service accounts? Same rule applies. Unique. Rotating. Logged.

If you’re not doing this, you are leaving the front door wide open and hoping no one walks in.

This Isn’t Optional—It’s Survival

Look, hackers already know your bad habits. They know IT teams get lazy. They know MSPs cut corners.

And they are counting on it.

So unless you want to be the next “MSP goes down, takes clients with them” headline, fix this now.

And if you need a security playbook that doesn’t suck, grab my book: Level Up

Because if you don’t fix your security, you won’t have a business left to protect.