What is PAM?
Privileged access management (PAM) is a set of cybersecurity tactics and technologies for managing elevated (“privileged”) access and permissions for users, accounts, processes, and systems in an IT environment.
Because of the risk they represent to the technical environment, we treat privileged accounts with additional caution. For example, if the credentials of an administrator or service account fall into the wrong hands, the organization’s systems and private data may be compromised.
When threat actors get access to privileged accounts, data breaches occur. We need to add additional levels of protection to these accounts since they hold the keys to every door in a technological environment. A Privileged Access Management system provides that extra layer of protection.
How does PAM Works?
Privileged Access Management, as previously said, is a combination of people, procedures, and technology. As a result, determining which accounts have privileged access is the first step in establishing a PAM solution. After that, the company must select which policies will be applied to these accounts.
They may say, for example, that service accounts must refresh their passwords every time a user accesses the credentials they’ve saved. Enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all system administrators is another example. Another regulation that the corporation may opt to apply is keeping a complete log of all privileged sessions. Each procedure should ideally correspond to a specific risk. For example, forcing service account passwords to update reduces the danger of an insider attack. Similarly, keeping a log of all privileged sessions helps security admins to see any irregularities, and using MFA to prevent password-related attacks is a proven approach.
After the discovery step of identifying privileged accounts and the finalization of PAM rules, the company may install a technological platform to monitor and enforce its Privileged Access Management. This PAM solution automates the organization’s rules and offers a platform for security administrators to manage and monitor privileged accounts.
Why PAM is Important?
Privileged Access Management is critical in every business since privileged accounts are a major security risk. If a threat actor gains access to a regular user account, for example, they will only have access to that person’s information. If they can compromise a privileged user, though, they will have significantly more access and, depending on the account, the capacity to damage systems.
Cybercriminals seek privileged accounts because they can attack entire companies rather than a single user because of their position and prominence. With Forrester predicting that privileged accounts are involved in 80% of security breaches, safeguarding and monitoring these critical organizational identities is critical. A PAM solution, for example, can address security flaws like many users accessing and knowing the same administrative password for a given service. It also reduces the danger of administrators not wanting to update long-standing static passwords for fear of causing an unforeseen outage.
Why you need PAM as a Service?
A scarcity of skilled security and IT personnel is one of the key difficulties that enterprises face. It’s difficult enough for businesses to fend off the increasing number of cyberattacks. Maintaining a solid cybersecurity posture without enough of the proper individuals on your team is even more difficult. This causes businesses to make difficult judgments about which technologies they can use and manage.
This explains why security solutions delivered as a service are becoming increasingly popular. They give risk mitigation solutions that don’t require extra infrastructure maintenance and offload a lot of the hands-on management that on-premises solutions demand. SaaS models enable IT security employees to focus on risk and compliance by offloading the majority of the effort of managing infrastructure and handling updates. PAM is similar to other SaaS or security solutions that are offered as a service.
PAM as a Service is a vital project for enterprises who don’t believe they have the means to build and manage an on-premises PAM system, or who would rather spend their internal resources on something else.
Organizations may reap the advantages of a solid PAM deployment without burdening their IT personnel with new infrastructure or updates by using PAM as a Service. These businesses also profit from the advantages of SaaS.
How ICONNECT PAMaaS Can Help?
iConnect PAMaaS enables organizations to satisfy their basic privileged access security demands without the need for extra infrastructure administration. PAM as a Service from iConnect allows enterprises to identify, enroll, and manage privileged accounts and credentials in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, all from a single cloud computing solution that is simple to implement and maintain.
iConnect PAMaaS may also isolate credentials and keep them from reaching end-user computers. It captures and monitors sessions to assist firms to satisfy audit and compliance needs while protecting sensitive information and systems.
