Privileged access management tools provide a wide range of security and compliance capabilities. These include protection and vaulting of credentials, robust authentication, access control, remote user monitoring and session recording, command execution, and user attribution for shared administrative accounts.
Privileged accounts are a common target of hackers because they offer a wealth of privileges that allow an authenticated user to do almost anything. It makes them highly vulnerable to abuse and a prime target for data breaches.
Privileged Account Discovery
Privileged accounts are the most likely to be targeted by hackers or abused by malicious insiders. The essential role of privileged account management is to provide visibility and control of secret identities so they don’t become targets in the first place.
The first step in privileged account management is to discover who and what has elevated privileges to apps, services, servers, databases, devices, and things. It helps to establish a baseline and simplify policies so that privileged access can be limited where it is safe and where it’s not.
Automated discovery of privileged accounts is a critical Identity, credential, and access management capability. It helps organizations understand the topology of secret histories and how they may have evolved to help with security reviews, planning, and ongoing monitoring.
For best results, run discovery regularly to ensure you uRunnment’s current state of privileged accounts. Whether you’re looking to meet regulatory requirements for best results like PCI DSS, HIPAA, FFIEC, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or just want to protect your territory against advanced automated discovery can be an essential component your strategy.
Privileged Account Management
Privileged access management tools manage and control secret accounts with elevated permissions in an IT environment. These accounts are used to access essential data, services, or systems that can pose a risk to your organization if they are compromised.
The right PAM solution can help you keep your privileged accounts and passwords safe from hackers, identity thieves, and other malicious actors. It can also help you track and revoke privileges to protect your company’s data and meet audit and compliance regulations.
These solutions also manage and broker credentials to users, devices, applications, and services for a seamless privileged access experience across the enterprise. It includes privileged account and session management, privilege elevation and delegation, and secrets management.
PAM is a critical security strategy for any organization that wants to avoid breaches and mitigate the risks they pose to business operations, reputation, and customers. It is especially true for organizations with sensitive information that standard user accounts cannot easily access.
Privileged Password Management
Privileged passwords unlock access to an elevated level of sensitive data, making them a high-value target for hackers. They can open doors to threats that could lead to a catastrophic data breach when managed poorly.
One way to mitigate this problem is to bring privileged accounts and credentials under centralized management. But that can be tricky.
To do this effectively, you must combine different point solutions into an operating system that comprehensively protects privileged accounts and their underlying credentials. That means combining a single solution for user provisioning, secure communications (SSH), and password management with a SIEM tool to monitor audit logs.
It is also a good idea to store the privileged password manager’s data store somewhere else, either on a remote site or on a cloud server. That way, you can have an off-site storage facility that can help protect your organization in a disaster.
Privileged Session Management
Privileged access management tools enable you to monitor confidential sessions and are alerted you when suspicious activity occurs. They can also pause or terminate personal sessions if you believe they’re inappropriate.
Keeping track of privileged access is essential for many reasons. First, it lets you identify who logs in to critical systems and why. Second, if a user is trying to take action, they shouldn’t. You can immediately block their account and notify security teams.
Third, privileged session monitoring provides a detailed audit trail that helps you identify and mitigate threats within high-risk accounts. It can also help you adjust your policies and prevent future privileged account abuse.
Privileged session management is a powerful way to secure your secret accounts and manage their activities from log-in to log-out. It increases oversight and accountability, so you can spot and respond to security risks before they cause damage.
Privileged Activity Monitoring
Privileged access management tools can provide a wealth of visibility and control over the behavior of privileged users. They can also help you proactively identify abnormal activity associated with privilege abuse and quickly remediate risk.
Admins can use these solutions to implement the least privilege for user access, limit privileged access to activities that support their job roles and tasks, and eliminate excessive and unused rights. It will make it easier to comply with policies and keep security risks minimal.
These solutions may offer features like host-based command control, live session monitoring, and various response functions that trigger alerts automatically to help security teams respond to suspicious activity. These can be triggered by specific user actions, application activities, or resource access to determine the severity of a threat and escalate appropriately.
Many privileged activity monitoring solutions also enable granular field-level logging to show how confidential users use their access. It allows organizations to track and document changes, providing valuable information that helps them proactively protect data.
