What is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a set of technologies and practices within an Identity and Access Management (IAM) strategy organizations use to secure, monitor, and control access to critical systems, applications, and sensitive data by users or accounts with privileged credentials. Privileged users’ accounts, such as system administrators, database administrators, and network engineers increase the size of the threat landscape, including insider threats and cyberattacks. These factors make privileged users a higher-risk group due to their elevated permission levels, making managing privileged access so essential.

Along with Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Privileged Access Management is a critical part of an overall Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) approach to securing an organization’s identities. Technology leaders look to the Privileged Access Management process to ensure robust security protocols and protect sensitive data, align organizational security practices with corporate governance and regulatory standards, and drive a strategic approach to identity and access management to mitigate risks. Controlling privileged access reduces the organization’s exposure to security threats. Front-line security managers must identify, deploy, and manage effective and efficient solutions that track privileged access activities and protect privileged accounts while maintaining a balance between user experience and security measures.

In this post, we will explain how Privileged Access Management functions within a larger Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution and how PAM best practices help reduce the threat of data breaches, enforce policies that align with regulatory compliance, and reduce an organization’s exposure to risk.

How Does Privileged Access Management Work?

Privileged Access Management safeguards an organization’s sensitive data by limiting and monitoring privileged access to critical resources and reducing the risk of data breaches. It also plays an important role in regulatory compliance, helping support a secure and compliant operational environment.

Privileged Access Management requirements rely on several core mechanisms to protect sensitive accounts, control access to critical systems, and provide accountability. The process is comprised of:

1. 1. Identification and Inventory of Privileged Accounts: Permission mapping and a comprehensive inventory of all privileged user accounts across all platforms in an organization’s IT infrastructure enables more effective entitlement management.
2. 2. Access Control and Policy Enforcement: Enforces policies such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure authorized users gain access to sensitive data based on the roles and job functions assigned to them within an organization. Rather than assigning permissions to individual users, permissions are grouped by role, and users are assigned to roles that determine what actions they can perform and which resources they can access within an IT infrastructure. Access Control enables organizations to enforce the principle of least privilege in their IT infrastructure.
3. 3. Credential Management: This involves storing and managing sensitive credentials such as passwords, SSH keys, API tokens, and certificates—in a centralized, encrypted repository called a vault. Credential Vaulting ensures that privileged credentials are protected from unauthorized access, misuse, or theft.
4. 4. Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Provides temporary access to privileged employees’, contractors’, partners’, and vendors’ accounts only when needed, reducing the risk of potential incidents or compromised user identities.
5. 5. Privileged Session Management Monitoring and Recording: Tracks and monitors privileged sessions in real-time, enabling administrators to observe user activity and enforce session recording.
6. 6. Logging and Auditing: Logs all privileged activities, providing audit trails to support compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX.
7. 7. Anomaly Detection and Threat Response: Maintaining detailed audit logs is critical for enforcing policies like the principle of least privilege and Segregation of Duties (SoD) as well as for conducting forensic investigations that drive incident response.

Types of Privileged Accounts

1. Privileged Accounts: User accounts, such as system administrators, database administrators, and network engineers typically have elevated privileges.
2. Service Accounts: A non-human identity representing an application or process that organizations use to access and interact with systems, resources, or APIs securely
3. Domain Administrator Accounts: Highly privileged accounts in a Windows Active Directory (AD) domain environment that manage and control the entire domain and its resources.
4. Business Privileged User Accounts: A type of user account with elevated permissions to access sensitive business systems, data, or applications required for specific job functions.
5. Emergency Accounts: Highly privileged accounts used only in critical or emergency situations when normal access mechanisms fail. They provide access to systems or resources during emergencies, such as system outages, credential lockouts, and account compromises.
6. Application Administrator Accounts: Organizations use these accounts to manage and administer applications and services. It provides elevated permissions to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot problems.
7. Local Administrator Accounts: Accounts with administrative privileges specific to a single computer or device. They have full control over a local system, including the ability to install software, modify system settings, and manage other user accounts on that machine.

The Importance of Privileged Access Management

Privileged Access Management secures the high-risk access points and safeguards against unauthorized access by all privileged user accounts. PAM mitigates security risks by limiting who can access sensitive data and systems. This reduces the volume of security vulnerabilities and minimizes the overall attack surface.

Privileged Access Management enforces access controls and creates a transparent log of access records to simplify audits and reports and meet regulatory requirements.

Key Benefits of Privileged Access Management

Privileged Access Management Use Cases

Privileged Access Management examples include:

1. Users of IT infrastructure such as partners, contractors, and vendors securing access from outside an organization represent a significant threat of potential identity security breaches. Using PAM methods like Mult-factor Authentication (MFA) tools and Just-in-Time Access enable secure privileged user access without severely impacting business processes or user experiences.
2. To facilitate access management PAM helps secure administrative access to servers, databases, and network devices.
3. PAM methods play a critical role in securing access to cloud environments and DevOps pipelines.

How to Implement Privileged Access Management

Implementing Privileged Access Management deployment requires organizations to:

1. Assess ongoing and future needs
2. Setting objectives
3. Plan PAM integration with the existing IT infrastructure

When choosing a Privileged Access Management solution that will be most effective, organizations must consider if it has the capacity to:

1. Integrate seamlessly with current IT systems, applications, and identity management platforms
2. Be customized to meet specific business requirements
3. Scale to accommodate the addition of new privileged users, applications, and platforms
4. Align with the organization’s overall identity security goals

Challenges and Considerations for Implementation

Implementing Privileged Access Management successfully is not without its challenges. Here are some potential pitfalls organizations must consider:

Gaining Organizational Buy-In

It is critical to gain executive support to allocate resources and encourage adoption across teams. This should involve demonstrating return on investment of PAM implementations and how PAM integrates with and supports the wider organizational security infrastructure.

Integrating with the Existing Technology Stack

Explain how the deployment options, and scalability features of the PAM solution you have chosen can be implemented in cloud, hybrid, on-premises legacy and provide insights into industry best practices for managing various privileged accounts across different sectors.

Developing User Training and Adoption

Create a comprehensive plan for adequate user training and education on Privileged Access Management, fostering a security-focused culture.

Best Practices for Privileged Access Management

Following best practices is essential to overcoming challenges and implementing and effective Privileged Access Management deployment strategy. Here are some best practices to follow:

Adhere to the Principle of Least Privilege

The Principle of Least Privilege governs the practice of granting users, devices, and processes only the minimum access or permissions required to perform their tasks. The principle reduces the attack surface and mitigates the potential impact of security breaches by enhancing control of access to privileged users.

Continuously Monitor and Review

Track who accessed what resources and when to identify suspicious activity or policy violations in close to real time and perform periodic reviews to ensure compliance and identify potential vulnerabilities among privileged users.

Update Privileged Accounts Regularly

Update identity attributes of privileged user accounts as their roles or job functions change. Revoke access and remove privileges when users no longer need them, or devices are retired.

These privileged access management best practices not only help secure privileged accounts but also streamline access management processes and improve regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

Privileged Access Management plays a critical role in securing, monitoring, and controlling access to critical systems, applications, and data by privileged users or accounts. An effective PAM solution integration reduces the risk of data breaches prevents identity security threats, supports regulatory compliance, and contributes significantly to an organization’s cybersecurity strategy.

As part of an organization-wide Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution, PAM plays an important part in ensuring organizations adhere to compliance regulations, maintain identity security, and maximize efficiency in identity workflows. Omada Identity Cloud is the cornerstone of a SaaS-based platform designed to deliver complete visibility and control over all users, applications, and resources in an organization’s entire identity administration landscape. Get a demo.