Business has always run on personal connections. But for many years, it’s also been run on a host of network and data connections designed to provide both internal and external users with the access to corporate systems and information that they need and want. On a daily basis, millions of workers use that access to do their jobs – and they take that access for granted, in large part because of the relative ease in accomplishing it. But there’s a facet to this access that should always be kept in mind, both by users of networks and the administrators charged with protecting those same networks and data: Access is a privilege, and not a right.
Privileged access management, or PAM, is software that helps organizations maintain complete control and visibility over their most critical systems and data. A robust PAM solution ensures that all user actions, including those taken by privileged users, are monitored and can be audited in case of a security breach.
An organization’s security posture benefits from the ability to manage and track access to privileged accounts. Privileged users—as well as those impersonating them—can present major security threats. A Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution offers an answer. It enables security teams to stay on top of privileged account access. To work, however, it must be a scalable PAM solution. The PAM solution must scale flexibly in a growing organization or suffer being disused, to the detriment of security overall. What does it take to build a scalable PAM solution? This article explores the answer to that question.
When talking about Privileged Access Management, it’s important to focus on the real objective: to ensure that only the right person can access the right system at any given time. A password vault can easily handle that, but you really need more. It’s far more important to ensure that when someone accesses a target, this person does only what they are supposed to do, and nothing more.
Ensuring security across organizations is complicated. Between securing the perimeter, enforcing password policies, and attempting to stop breaches before they occur, there is a lot that needs to be considered. Implementing robust privileged identity management through advanced session management tools is one of the key steps to improving organizational security.
