What Is the Principle of Least Privilege?

What to do: When you share a file, give people view-only access unless they really need to edit it.

Give each person only the access they need to do their job, and no more.

This isn’t about distrust. The worry isn’t that someone will cause harm on purpose. It’s that someone’s account gets hacked, or someone accidentally installs something harmful. Computers are complicated and everybody makes mistakes. Giving people only the access they need limits how much damage one mistake can do.

How to Put It Into Practice

• Sharing files: When you share a file on Google Drive, choose Viewer unless the person actually needs to make changes.
• Computer accounts: By default, give people accounts without administrator access. (See Privilege Escalation.)
• Business tools: Google Workspace and Canva Pro let you control access in more detail. That’s covered in the Sysadmin section.