Organizations use several privileged accounts that have elevated access to sensitive enterprise data. These privileged user accounts must be managed efficiently to avoid potential exposure to external threat actors or insiders who don't or no longer require access. Privileged user management is a strategy that helps enterprises monitor, control, and audit all privileged user access.
A privileged account is an account that has elevated privileges or permissions to perform sensitive business-critical tasks. Some examples of privileged accounts include administrative accounts (domain administrator accounts, local administrator accounts, root accounts), service accounts, and mission-critical user accounts.
Although each of these accounts have varying levels of privileges and may serve various purposes, they must be securely moderated as they grant users elevated access to sensitive, enterprise endpoints and applications.
Any user who requires access to privileged accounts can be classified as a privileged user. This can be a system engineer, IT administrator, security architects, and more. These individuals may access a privileged account to perform basic administrative tasks, oversee the organization's infrastructure, and monitor and protect enterprise assets and data from data threats.
Privileged users may require access to several privileged accounts, but these users must have their privileges revoked once their tasks are completed. Also, these users must receive the least privileges required to complete their tasks. If their access isn't closely moderated, potential internal and external threats may arise.
Any insider with unrestricted access to a privileged account is a potential threat. These insiders can potentially exfiltrate or alter sensitive data, perform destructive actions that cause financial damage to the enterprise and its brand, and accidentally cause service disruptions.
Attackers can leverage unmanaged privileged user accounts to escalate privileges and access accounts that users no longer use. This can widen the exploit and cause large scale damage to the enterprise.
An effective privileged user management strategy can prevent internal and external threats and provide several benefits as listed below.
While no strategy is foolproof, moderating privileged access can minimize privilege misuse and reduce the attack surface, and reduce potential internal and external threats.
Several compliance standards and regulations mandate the need for least privileged access and streamlined privileged user management.
With access provisioning automation, several administrative tasks can be automated, which improves employee productivity and efficiency. Additionally, with no potential disruptions and zero business downtime, your workflows remain intact.
Before implementing a privileged user management strategy, you must be mindful of some of the best practices that must be adopted to get maximum protection from cyberthreats, data breaches, and other concerns.
Adopt the principle of least privilege when granting access to privileged users. Organizations can grant privileged users role-based access by default to scrutinize access provisioning within an organization. Additionally, these users must be provided with the least privilege required to perform their tasks.
When elevated access is required to perform a business task, users must request and gain just-in-time access on a necessary basis. This prevents privilege creep and minimizes the threat of privilege abuse.
Monitor, record, and audit privileged sessions in real time. Track anomalous behavior and flag relevant administrators and security personnel in your enterprise. This minimizes the impact a potential threat actor.
Several compliance standards mandate the need for privileged access management. Audit and report every privileged user access closely and record the activities in a central console.
It might be a daunting task for IT administrators to adopt several of the tasks mentioned above without using a privileged access management solution. Find and adopt a solution that offers robust privileged user management capabilities that your enterprise requires.
Privileged access management solutions like PAM360 offer built-in capabilities such as privileged account management, session management, privilege elevation, and delegation management that are essential for safe privileged user management.
Role-based access control is a security best practice that helps restrict access to critical resources based on a privileged user's role. This approach makes access management a lot easier and safer.