Privileged Access Management (PAM): Guide To Adding A Layer Of Security To Your Business
Cybersecurity aims to protect sensitive data, systems, and networks from various threats. In this context, managing privileged access stands out as a critical issue. Protecting privileged accounts from internal misuse and bad actors trying to use them for ill-gotten gain is essential.
The Privileged Access Management (PAM) function is crucial in securing top-level accounts within an organization. Any organization can no longer ignore Privileged Access Management (PAM). This is an essential component of any Identity Security program and one of the best PAM strategies is essential for achieving compliance and security.
Why Privileged Accounts Require Special Protection?
Every organization faces a significant security risk associated with privileged access. Privileged access is generally managed for three reasons:
- Attackers target privileged accounts frequently. Taking advantage of privileged accounts can provide attackers access to sensitive systems and data, allowing them to remain hidden for a long time without being detected.
- An owner of a privileged account may misuse it. Sometimes administrators’ mistakes lead to security controls being turned off, Group Policy being modified, sensitive data being stolen, or infrastructure being damaged.
- Every major compliance regulation requires you to control privileged accounts. Auditors closely monitor privileged access controls, which can result in steep fines.
Here we will give detailed information about PAM solutions and how they benefit business security
What is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a comprehensive cybersecurity framework and set of practices designed to safeguard critical systems, data, and infrastructure by managing and controlling privileged accounts and access. Privileged accounts refer to accounts with elevated permissions, often held by IT administrators, developers, and other personnel responsible for managing and maintaining an organization’s IT environment.
Due to the risk they pose, privileged accounts are treated with extra care. In the case of a compromised administrator or service account, confidential data and systems could be compromised.
As a result of compromised privileged access accounts, data breaches occur. Adding additional layers of protection to these accounts is essential because they are the keys to unlocking every door in a technology environment. The Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution provides that extra security by controlling, managing and monitoring access.
How Does Privileged Access Management (PAM) Work?
By managing privileges, you can create a secure environment where sensitive information is only accessible to users with appropriate privileges. By combining authorization, authentication, and auditing gets the job done. PAM servers are placed on perimeters, allowing access to target systems. The PAM serves as a proxy. All access to the PAM server must be granted through it; users can only access it through the PAM server.
Assuming elevated privileges is what Privileged Access Management (PAM) is all about. As a result, accidents or unskilled actions of users are also prevented. In addition to identifying specific individuals who have been granted privileged access, PAM also shows how long they have used the access.
To implement a PAM tool, several security controls must be implemented, including:
- Centralized Management of Privileged Accounts – Secure vaults allow organizations to store credentials, like passwords and keys, and manage them securely.
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – Using RBAC, an organization can assign access rights based on an employee’s role.
- Just-In-Time (JIT) Access – In this process, temporary access rights are granted to restricted resources only when they are needed for a short period.
- Multifactor Authentication (MFA) – Two or more forms of identity verification are required before resources can be accessed with MFA.
- Session Monitoring and Auditing – As privileged sessions are recorded and monitored, suspicious activity can be detected in real-time, and an audit trail can be compiled and analyzed in detail.
- Infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex, so robust security measures like PAM have become even more critical. By preventing unauthorized access, mitigating insider threats, and lowering data breach risks, PAM protects valuable assets. Furthermore, it facilitates compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. Controlling access to critical systems, monitoring user activity, and responding to threats can all be done with Privileged Access Management (PAM).
How Does Privileged Access Management (PAM) Work?
By managing privileged accounts, you can create a secure environment where sensitive information is only accessible to users with authorized and approved access.
PAM takes over the credentials of the privileged accounts and periodically updates the same on the targets with random generated credentials.
PAM servers are placed on perimeters, providing restricted access to target systems. The PAM serves as a proxy. All access to the target servers, network devices, desktop and web applicationsr must be granted through it; users can only access the infrastructure through the PAM server.
Managing elevated privileged accounts is not what Privileged Access Management (PAM) is all about. Accidental or unskilled actions of users are also prevented. In addition to identifying specific individuals who have been granted privileged access and managing their credentials, PAM also shows monitors the activites and records the session for the logged in users.
Key Elements of Privileged Access Management
To implement a PAM tool, several security controls must be implemented including:
Privileged Account Discovery
- Identify and inventory all privileged accounts within the organization’s IT ecosystem, including user accounts, service accounts, and system accounts.
Access Control and Least Privilege
- Implement strict access controls to restrict privileged account usage to authorized individuals.
- Assign permissions based on the principle of least privilege, granting the minimum level of access necessary for each role.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Integrate MFA into privileged account authentication.
- Require multiple factors (passwords, tokens, biometrics) for authentication before granting access.
Privileged Session Management
- Enforce session management tools to monitor and record privileged user sessions.
- Record activities, commands, and actions taken during sessions for audit purposes.
Password Management
- Use a privileged account password vault to securely store passwords.
- Enable automatic password rotation for increased security.
Just-In-Time (JIT) Access
- Implement JIT provisioning, granting temporary access for specified durations.
- Users request access, approvals are obtained, and access is granted for a limited time.
Privileged Access Request and Approval
- Utilize automated workflows for requesting and approving privileged access.
- Approvals from authorized personnel are required before granting access.
Auditing and Monitoring
- Implement continuous monitoring of privileged account activities.
- Utilize auditing tools to capture and log all actions performed by privileged users.
Automated Workflows
- Automate the provisioning and de-provisioning of privileged accounts.
- Streamline processes to ensure timely access and removal.
Emergency Access
- Establish emergency access procedures for critical situations.
- Emergency access requires multiple levels of authorization and is closely monitored.
Risk Assessment and Analysis
- Identify high-risk accounts and systems.
- Implement additional security measures for these accounts.
How Does Implementing Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solution Contributes To Prioritizing Identity Security For Your Business?
PAM can help prevent credential theft and privilege misuse in organizations by giving them better control over user access. Keeping IT security across an enterprise requires monitoring, controlling, and auditing technology, processes, and users.
Using a modern-day PAM solution can help you maintain a more secure cyber infrastructure and keep valuable data more secure.
Here are some benefits of PAM in IT security.
The Process Is Fast-Tracked To Compliance
Regulations and industry standards apply to almost all organizations, whether small or large. Compliance with these regulations is often a challenging task for CISOs. Access controls are strong security recommendations in PCI DSS, ISO 27001, EU GDPR, Cyber Essentials, and the NIST Framework. They can get ahead quickly and establish a strong baseline with Privileged Access Management (PAM).
Minimized Cyber Attack Surface
If your privileged accounts are compromised, you might end up losing critical information or end up paying ransom. Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution makes it nearly impossible for attackers to access them. Any password changes and applications that have been executed are discovered instantly and automatically changed by PAM. Audit logs can also be taken as a snapshot.
Secures Passwords
Since privileged accounts have access to a company’s most valuable assets, they need to be secure. Privileged account logins are protected with automatic password rotation.The user can access the critical assets without knowing the passwords. The users login to PAM and access the aseets using privileged accounts vaulted in PAM. The more layers of security you add to PAM credentials, like One Time Password (OTP), biometrics, response questions, etc., the harder it is for hackers to get in.
Keep an eye on privileged accounts
Thousands of privileged session recordings are received daily, and PAM solutions can help you monitor them. To avoid reviewing thousands of boring recordings of privilege sessions, PAM solutions define the norm for user behavior. Whenever suspicious behavior occurs, an alert is sent. Rather than monitoring every recording, your security teams can focus on monitoring the fishy occurrences.
Access Control For Vendors and Partners
Many organizations need third parties to maintain and update their systems. With the PAM solution, you can give people access based on their roles. As a result, you do not have to give out domain credentials to outsiders.
Reducing The Spread Of Malware
Cybersecurity is ultimately about reducing malware propagation. With privileged access management, malicious code cannot spread to the farthest parts of your network, which are the easiest to break into.
Ensure Strong Credential Accountability
Users can share their credentials with anyone they want. Strong credential-sharing rules in the employee handbook can help reduce that risk. Team members must know they are accountable for their identity and their credentials.
Why Privileged Accounts Require Special Protection?
Every organization faces a significant security risk associated with privileged access. Privileged access is generally managed for three reasons:
Attackers target privileged accounts frequently
Taking advantage of privileged accounts can provide attackers access to sensitive systems and data, allowing them to remain hidden for a long time without being detected.
An owner of a privileged account may misuse it
Sometimes administrators’ mistakes lead to security controls being turned off, Group Policy being modified, sensitive data being stolen, or infrastructure being damaged.
Every major compliance regulation requires you to control privileged accounts
Auditors closely monitor privileged access controls, which can result in steep fines.
Why Does Implementing Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solution Contributes To Prioritizing Identity Security For Your Business?
Here are some benefits of PAM in IT security.
Contributes More Than Just Providing Security
With Privileged Access Management (PAM), organizations can save time and money while ensuring a great level of security. This makes it the most critical priority. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) can use the same budget to accomplish more by reinvesting time and money in cybersecurity. PAM adds excellent value to an organization because security solutions are only designed to reduce risk. When this occurs, most organizations spend a lot of money on security solutions that do not add additional value.
The Process Is Fast-Tracked To Compliance
Regulations and industry standards apply to almost all organizations, whether small or large. Compliance with these regulations is often a challenging task for CISOs. Access controls are strong security recommendations in PCI, ISO 27002, EU GDPR, Cyber Essentials, and the NIST Framework. They can get ahead quickly and establish a strong baseline with Privileged Access Management (PAM).
Cyber Attacks Are Easier To Recover From With It
If your privileged accounts are compromised, your Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution makes it easy for you to audit them. Any password changes and applications that have been executed will be discovered instantly by PAM. Audit logs should also be taken as a snapshot. Perhaps you have already created privileged accounts that the technical and security team can use to access systems quickly during incidents.
Secures Passwords
Since privileged accounts have access to a company’s most valuable assets, they need to be secure. Privileged account logins are protected with multifactor authentication (MFA). Multiple credentials can be verified to authenticate the admin or user. The more layers of security you add to credentials, like One Time Password (OTP), biometrics, response questions, etc., the harder it is for hackers to get in.
Access Control For Non-Employees
Many organizations need third parties to maintain and update their systems. With the PAM solution, you can give people access based on their roles. As a result, you do not have to give out domain credentials to outsiders.
Keeping Your Attack Surface Small
A privileged user is one of your biggest attack surfaces. A privileged account is the most desirable and targeted digital target because it opens doors you cannot access through other targets. A cyberattack can result in the theft of money, the disruption of workflows, and the shutdown of IT systems.
A Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution limits the attack surface directly for the most influential users. Further, implementing the Principle of Least Privilege can limit the indirect attack surface, ensuring that privileged accounts can access only relevant data and cannot escalate their permissions independently.
Reducing The Spread Of Malware
Cybersecurity is ultimately about reducing malware propagation. With privileged access management, malicious code cannot spread to the farthest parts of your network, which are the easiest to break into.
Success-Focused Privileged Access Management (PAM) Best Practices
Following are some best practices for Privileged Access Management (PAM) that will assist in strengthening the security of your organization.
Establish Procedures for Determining Which Identities Should Be a Privileged Access
An identity management solution can simplify the management of users who receive privileged access by implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution. Managing the access levels of your identities in your environment is easy when you update this part of your identity management solution.
Get up-to-date Information About Privileged Accounts
For this reason, you use PAM to prevent employees from obtaining privileged account credentials outside the PAM system. Keeping track of accounts that require PAM keeps you from being surprised.
Get Rid of Orphaned Accounts
Identifying orphaned accounts is the first step to eliminating the security risk. It is essential to account for every identity in your environment. A weak password or a compromised credential on an unknown account is a tantalizing target for bad actors. When you cannot figure out who is responsible for the accounts you are not responsible for, remove them.
Ensure Strong Credential Accountability
Users can share their credentials with anyone they want. Strong credential-sharing rules in the employee handbook can help reduce that risk. Team members must know they are accountable for their identity and their credentials.
Keep an eye on privileged accounts
Thousands of privileged session recordings are received daily, and PAM solutions can help you monitor them. To avoid reviewing thousands of boring recordings of privilege sessions, PAM solutions define the norm for user behavior. Whenever suspicious behavior occurs, an alert is sent. Rather than monitoring every recording, your security teams can focus on monitoring the fishy occurrences.
Training Staff
You need to train your users on Privileged Access Management (PAM) to succeed. The tendency is for people to follow processes they are aware of and the negative consequences of not following them. Team members are less likely to struggle with internal process compliance when they have easy-to-follow user guides, videos, screenshots, and other resources. Users who do not understand how PAM works try to work around it, which can put their security at risk. By understanding PAM’s benefits, your users will take part in a process change and understand why it is important.
Maintain Access Management Documentation
To demonstrate compliance, you must maintain technical and training procedures. By storing policies, practices, and guidelines, you will have all the information an auditor needs, simplifying auditing.
Ensure PAM Has A Management Sponsor
Higher management sponsorship is essential for PAM projects. As your security posture and PAM evolve with your company, you will need that sponsor even after initial implementation. Any change needs to be supported by someone to allocate funds, assign people to projects, and ensure smooth implementation and use.
Evaluation of PAM Usage, Enhancements, and Improvements
The purpose of reviews is to determine whether PAM is functioning correctly. Regular reviews will optimize a PAM solution for efficiency, user-friendliness, and operation within company processes. You need a PAM solution that can keep up with the changes in your organization.
Elevating Security for Those with Elevated Access: Understanding the underlying needs of PAM
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is applicable in a wide range of contexts and environments where privileged accounts exist and where safeguarding sensitive data and critical systems is paramount.
Here are some specific areas where Privileged Access Management is applicable:
1. Enterprise IT Environments:
- PAM is essential in corporate settings to secure access to critical servers, databases, and administrative systems.
2. Data Centers:
- PAM ensures that data center personnel have controlled and monitored access to servers, switches, and storage.
3. Cloud Infrastructure:
- PAM helps secure privileged access to cloud-based services, virtual machines, and data stored in the cloud.
4. Remote Access:
- PAM ensures secure remote access for administrators and IT personnel, regardless of their location.
5. Application Servers:
- PAM secures access to application servers, preventing unauthorized changes to applications and configurations.
6. Network Devices:
- PAM controls access to routers, switches, and firewalls to prevent unauthorized network configuration changes.
7. Database Management:
- PAM safeguards privileged access to databases, protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access.
8. Servers and Operating Systems:
- PAM secures access to operating systems on servers, workstations, and other devices.
9. Industrial Control Systems:
- PAM protects access to critical industrial systems and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.
10. DevOps Environments:
- PAM ensures secure access to development and testing environments, source code repositories, and deployment tools.
11. Third-Party and Vendor Access:
- PAM ensures secure and monitored access for external vendors, contractors, and partners requiring temporary access.
12. Critical Infrastructure:
- PAM safeguards access to critical infrastructure components such as power generation systems and utilities.
In summary, Privileged Access Management is applicable wherever privileged accounts exist, and the protection of sensitive data, critical systems, and operational integrity is a concern. It addresses security challenges across diverse industries, IT environments, and use cases.
Empower Your Security, Safeguard Your Secrets: Elevate Your Defense with Privileged Access Management (PAM) is unquestionably one of the top cybersecurity priorities because privileged accounts play a critical role in enterprise infrastructure. PAM solutions can effectively mitigate unmanaged privileged access risks.
With IDM Technologies, you can access comprehensive Privileged Access Management (PAM) for endpoints, applications, and servers. PAM solutions offer robust credentials management, session monitoring, and access control, so our customers can maintain regular compliance and audits.
As a PAM solution provider, we enable companies to choose the right industry-leading technical partner solutions to monitor privileged activities, detect anomalies, and respond to threats promptly.
Looking to advance your Identity Security program with a compelling Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution of all your business data? Contact IDM Technologies and take your identity security journey to new levels.
We #SimplifyIdentitySecurity
Conclusion
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is unquestionably one of the top cybersecurity priorities because privileged accounts play a critical role in enterprise infrastructure. PAM solutions can effectively mitigate unmanaged privileged access risks.
With IDM Technologies, you can access comprehensive Privileged Access Management (PAM) for endpoints, applications, and servers. PAM solutions offer robust credentials management, session monitoring, and access control, so our customers can maintain regular compliance and audits.
As a PAM solution provider, we enable companies to choose the right industry-leading technical partner solutions to monitor privileged activities, detect anomalies, and respond to threats promptly.
Looking to advance your Identity Security program with a compelling Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution of all your business data? Contact IDM Technologies and take your identity security journey to new levels.
We #SimplifyIdentitySecurity
