What is privileged access control?

Privileged access control is the process of ensuring that access to sensitive information and resources that is usually given to privileged roles, like admins and operators, is not misused. Implementing privileged access control takes you a step closer to the Zero Trust security model.

Steps in privileged access control

• Decide privileges: Identify the user identities from different departments and hierarchies of the organization that need to be given privileged access and create the required types of privileged access groups. Ensure these groups have a set lifetime, too.
• Fortify access: Enforce stringent password complexity rules. Implement multi-factor authentication and risk-based restrictions to improve security.
• Maintain visibility: Keep all the users informed about other employees accessing the same privileged user account. Let users in the organization see who their domain administrators and IT technicians are.
• Eliminate excess: Grant access to privileges stringently. Keep the access levels and relevant timelines in check. Delete unused privileged user accounts.
• Audit access: Maintain detailed records of who accessed what from where and when, so that if an account is compromised, you can quickly backtrack the events leading up to it.

Benefits of privileged access control

• Increased credibility: Transparency and timely checks of privileges improve trust of and within the organization.
• Reduced insider attacks: Many severe cyberattacks were the result of someone working in the organization. The chances of a malicious insider successfully carrying out an attack can be drastically reduced with proper privileged access management.
• Easy compliance: Privileged access control helps you to stay compliant with multiple IT regulations around the world.

Privileged access control in Active Directory

In Windows Active Directory, privileged user accounts can have unlimited access to various imperative resources such as critical databases or servers. They might even be able to access audit logs and alter other users' account settings. This is why accounts like these should have extra security and be quickly tended to when maintenance is required.

Privileged access control with ADSelfService Plus

ADSelfService Plus is an adaptive MFA solution that can provide tight authentication workflows for privileged accounts. With conditional access, the number and type of authentication methods enforced for privileged account login is altered based on the location, device used to log in, time of access, and IP address. Here are some scenarios where conditional access in ADSelfService Plus can help:

• Mandating MFA like biometrics for IT admin logins.
• Enforcing a three-step identity verification process for logins at anomalous hours and from untrusted IPs.
• Allowing machines within the office premises to access enterprise applications through SSO.