What is PAM?

PAM stands for Privileged Access Management – a solution for managing privileged accounts. As its name suggests, at the heart of this system are privileges – a word that we often use in a negative context, but here they save you from the problems brought by the lack of pre-planned access control. With PAM, only authorized users can access sensitive data or critical systems, and their activities are monitored and audited for compliance and security purposes.

Privileged accounts are created within the system and assigned only to specific users, while credentials and access data remain hidden and protected. PAM solutions typically include a combination of access control, identity management, authentication and monitoring capabilities. Through their deployment modern, hybrid enterprises secure critical data, devices, code and infrastructure in the cloud to reduce risk, ensure compliance and simplify security.
 

Who needs PAM?

PAM is crucial for organizations that want to protect their critical assets, sensitive data, and intellectual property from unauthorized use of privileged accounts. The most common areas of activity of organizations in which we have implemented PAM are:

  • finances
  • healthcare
  • public sector
  • technological organizations

Privileged accounts are created for different groups, including administrators, developers, and vendors, and each should have its own, clearly defined area of ​​access. If you have such accounts, be sure that PAM can mitigate the risk of security incidents, insider threats or cyber-attacks.

Additionally, various regulations or industry standards have controls, whose requirements can be met by implementing a PAM system.
 

How will PAM improve the work and security of your company or organization?

There are four basic areas where you will feel the difference:

  • It includes a comprehensive set of controls to protect privileged accounts, including password management, session recording, access rules, and multi-factor authentication. This reduces the risks of unauthorized access, security incidents and cyber-attacks.
  • Implementation helps organizations to comply with various regulations and standards by providing the necessary controls and audit capabilities. This includes monitoring and reporting on privileged account activity.
  • It guides the management of privileged accounts by centralizing access control, automating work processes and reducing the risk of human error. This improves productivity, reduces downtime and reduces the burden on IT staff.
  • Identification and monitoring of privileged accounts reveal abnormal behavior and reduces the risk of insider threats. Malicious internal users are prevented from accessing sensitive data or systems, and damage caused by unintentional errors or misconfigurations is minimized.

 

Does PAM have an alternative and why it doesn’t?

Solutions such as identity and access management (IAM) and role-based access control (RBAC) are not real alternatives, but are usually used in conjunction with PAM.

The key differences are:

  • Different focus: IAM and RBAC focus on managing user access to applications and data, while PAM focuses on privileged accounts and access to critical systems. It also provides additional security controls, such as session recording and auditing.
  • Compliance requirements: various regulations or industry standards have controls, whose requirements can be met by implementing a PAM system.
  • Unique challenges: Privileged accounts require specialized controls and monitoring. Privileged accounts are often shared by multiple users, making it difficult to track and audit activity. PAM addresses these challenges with granular access control, session recording, and traceability.

Overall, PAM remains the most effective solution for managing and securing privileged accounts and reducing the risk of cyber threats and data breaches. It is one of the most important security projects to reduce cyber risk and achieve a high security return on investment.
 

Three interesting facts about PAM

  1. PAM can prevent “shadow IT” within organizations. By enabling centralized control over privileged accounts, PAM can prevent employees from creating and using unauthorized accounts to access sensitive data or systems.
  2. PAM can help organizations to reduce the risk of insider cyber-attacks. According to a 2022 Verizon report, 82% of incidents involved a human element, whether it was the use of stolen credentials, identity theft, misuse, or simple error. Through granular access control, session recording, and monitoring capabilities, PAM is an excellent solution for detecting and preventing accidental and malicious internal activity.
  3. PAM can help organizations to save money on compliance costs. According to a Forrester Research study, companies that implement PAM can reduce their costs in this area by up to 50%, thanks to reduced audit costs and easier proof of compliance.

 

Delinea – our chosen PAM solution

Firmly convinced of our choice, we offer users only one PAM solution, that of the company Delinea, which we have already implemented for several Croatian users. This company was formed through the merger of Thycotic and Centrify, and the unified platform is the industry’s leading solution, as evidenced by its leading role in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management.

Implementing a PAM solution provides security that is invisible to the user, while giving IT and security teams the extended privileged access controls they need, as well as handling them without unnecessary complexity.

For those who want to know more, you can also download the Delinea PAM for Dummies brochure, a brochure that will provide you with an insight into everything that you did not manage to find out through our introduction. Feel free to contact us for any additional information!