A PAM solution identifies the people, processes, and technology that require privileged access and specifies the policies that apply to them. Your PAM solution must have capabilities to support the policies you establish (e.g., automated password management andmultifactor authentication) and administrators should have the ability to automate the process of creating, amending, and deleting accounts. Your PAM solution should also continuously monitor sessions so you can generate reports to identify and investigate anomalies.
Two primary use cases for privileged access management are preventing credential theft and achieving compliance.
Credential theft is when a threat actor steals login information to gain access to a user’s account. After they are logged in, they can access organizational data, install malware on various devices, and gain access to higher-level systems. A PAM solution can mitigate this risk by ensuring just-in-time and just-enough access and multifactor authentication for all admin identities and accounts.
Whatever compliance standards apply to your organization, a least-privilege policy is likely required to protect sensitive data like payment or personal health information. A PAM solution also enables you to prove your compliance by generating reports of privileged user activity—who is accessing what data and why.
Additional use cases include automating the user lifecycle (i.e., account creation, provisioning, and deprovisioning), monitoring and recording privileged accounts, securing remote access, and controlling third-party access. PAM solutions can also be applied to devices (the Internet of Things), cloud environments, and DevOps projects.
The misuse of privileged access is a cybersecurity threat that can cause serious and extensive damage to any organization. A PAM solution offers robust features to help you stay ahead of this risk.
- Provide just-in-time access to critical resources
- Allow secure remote access using encrypted gateways in lieu of passwords
- Monitor privileged sessions to support investigative audits
- Analyze unusual privileged activity that might be harmful to your organization
- Capture privileged account events for compliance audits
- Generate reports on privileged user access and activity
- Protect DevOps with integrated password security
