What is Privileged Access Management?

In today's interconnected world, where cyber threats are evolving every day, organizations face the big challenge of safeguarding their sensitive data and critical systems. Old-style perimeter-based security measures are no longer sufficient to protect. And the Zero Trust security model rose. A crucial aspect of implementing Zero Trust is privileged access management (PAM), which ensures that only authorized users can access privileged accounts and systems.

Privileged accounts have elevated permissions and hold the organization's most critical assets. PAM is a comprehensive approach that ensures the strict control and monitoring of privileged access.

Key Components of PAM in Zero Trust?

• Account Discovery

  The first step is to identify all privileged accounts within the organization. This includes all administrator accounts, service accounts, and other high-privileged accounts.

• Strong Authentication

  PAM requires some mechanisms for strong authentication, like multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to provide new pieces of evidence to verify their identity.

• JIT

  Just-in-Time Privileged Access restricts privileged access to a specific time window and only when needed. This minimizes the exposure of privileged accounts.

• Monitoring and Auditing

  PAM solutions provide real-time monitoring and auditing capabilities to track privileged user activities. This helps detect any suspicious behavior or policy violations.

Benefits of PAM in Zero Trust

• Minimizing Attack Surface

  PAM helps reduce the risk of privileged accounts.

• Least Privilege Principle

  PAM gives only the least privilege to users.

• Regulatory Compliance

  PAM plays a crucial role in meeting regulatory compliance requirements, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

• Incident Response

  PAM enables quick identification and response to potential security incidents. The ability to review session recordings and perform forensic analysis helps in understanding.

Conclusion

As organizations adopt the Zero Trust model to mitigate security risks, Privileged Access Management (PAM) becomes an important part of their security strategy. PAM controls privileged accounts and actions tightly. By enforcing strong authentication, least privilege access, and continuous monitoring.