A Simple Guide to Privileged Access Management

Blog Post Title - Simple Guide to Privileged Access Management

What is Privileged Access Management and How Does it Benefit Users?

With data breaches and cyber attacks skyrocketing in the post-pandemic age, privileged access management, or PAM, has become an essential Cybersecurity solution for businesses of all sizes. It offers robust features that streamline and enhance monitoring and authorization in digital environments.

The only problem is that most non-technical staff and managers remain unaware of how PAM works and what benefits it offers the organization as a whole. It can feel frustrating to staff when they do not have access to all information at all times. However, limiting access to networks, devices, programs, processes, and data can protect an organization from unnecessary risk. In this post, we’ll walk through the ins and outs of Privileged Access Management.

A Simple Guide to Privileged Access Management for Non-Technical Staff and Managers

Keep reading to learn more!

What Is Privileged Access Management?

By definition, privileged access management is a Cybersecurity solution designed to designate and manage special access or abilities to authorized users.

The key purpose of this solution is to segregate privileged users based on their roles and protect organizations against accidental or deliberate misuse of information, applications, processes, and other digital resources/touchpoints above and beyond regular users.

Simply put, PAM condenses the potential attack surface, thus, mitigating some of the risks of damage arising from attacks and their consequences (lawsuits, reputation loss, financial loss, etc.).

How PAM Works

Privileged access management combines people, processes, and technology to implement a policy-based system that actively monitors and controls user access to critical data and systems. To implement PAM, an organization has to identify users that require privileged access.

Next, a policy is crafted to manage users with special rights and combined with different access management technologies, such as multi-factor authentication, privileged session logging, data logging, reporting, and real-time monitoring.

Today, you can find a host of PAM solutions in the market, including Arcon, Jumpcloud, Hitachi ID, One identity, and Heimdal Security, to name a few.

Key PAM Benefits for Staff and Managers

Now that you’re well-versed with the basics of privileged access management, let’s check out the key benefits of this solution for staff and managers:

  1. Reduced Risk of Cyber Attacks – The human element continues to be a huge risk factor for cyber attacks. By reducing access to larger portions of company systems, you reduce the ricks of cyber attacks by default.
  2. Helps Stop the Spread of Malware – Likewise, by reducing access to larger portions of company networks and devices, the spread of malware decreases by default.
  3. Makes Compliance Easier – Cyber insurance is now a requirement in many industries, in addition to many other data safety compliance requirements. By limiting access to sensitive information, the amount of auditing and security checks is decreased making compliance easier.
  4. Improved Visibility – With a PAM solution, managers can view who accessed different files, servers, networks, and applications in real-time and generate instant reports. They can also monitor suspicious activities, such as unusually long session times or unauthorized access.
  5. Enhanced Collaboration – PAM solutions enable organizations to integrate different processes and tools into a secure, centralized hub with hierarchical access. This integration can increase collaboration among team members working with critical data or applications.
  6. Increased Productivity – Modern PAM tools use AI and other automation technologies to perform manual or redundant tasks, such as password resetting or vaulting. This saves staff and managers a lot of time which they can use to carry out other important tasks.
October 2022 free cybersecurity poster understanding privileged access management

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it – a simple guide to privileged access management. Hopefully, with this simple breakdown of the innovative solution, more businesses, managers, and staff can understand and adopt it to reduce the risk of attack, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access.

Overall, PAM is a game-changing solution in the post-pandemic age where malicious activities are becoming more common daily. It allows organizations to be more proactive in identifying potential risks and taking different measures to mitigate them.