What are Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solutions?Privileged Access Management (PAM), also known as Privileged Identity Management (PIM), is the control and security storage of credentials that would grant users privileged access to critical or sensitive systems, applications, or data sources. Privileged access management solutions scale and secure and organization’s privileged access credentials and accounts. These solutions manage access to administrative privileges, emergency accounts, ...
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Privileged Access Management (PAM), also known as Privileged Identity Management (PIM), is the control and security storage of credentials that would grant users privileged access to critical or sensitive systems, applications, or data sources. Privileged access management solutions scale and secure and organization’s privileged access credentials and accounts. These solutions manage access to administrative privileges, emergency accounts, service accounts, and other privileged user abilities and accounts.
Privileged access management is based on the “principle of least privileges,” where users only get the privileges that are absolutely necessary to do their jobs. This prevents overprovisioning users with access to systems that might create unnecessary vulnerabilities. This approach to privileged permissions grants extra security for high-risk access to systems and applications, as determined by predefined policies within the privileged access management solution.
Privileged access management solutions ensure that businesses have visibility into and control over all privileged accounts, credentials, and activity in order to mitigate external and internal threats. This visibility and control is often necessary for regulatory compliance and data protection standards, particularly with organizations with high volumes of sensitive information.
Privileged Access Management solutions should be able to support these core PAM areas:
Secure storage and management for privileged credentials and accounts
Privileged account discovery
Privileged user activity tracking
Multi-factor authentication methods for privileged access
Privileged access management and identity management overlap heavily, but they are not synonymous. Privileged access management focuses on securing access to specific high-risk systems and data sources. In contrast, identity management handles authentication and identity validation for “standard” or lower-risk users.
In the order of priority, privileged access management comes before broader identity management because PAM determines who has admin access to manage non-privileged users’ identities in the first place. However, identity management suites often have privileged access management capabilities as well, but such features are not universal. Privileged access management and identity management capabilities can, and should, be used alongside each other within the organization.
When comparing different privileged access management solutions, consider these factors:
Privileged Activity Logging: not all PAM solutions will automatically log the activity of users who are using privileged credentials. However, this capability can be crucial in diagnosing an active breach, identifying risky behavior early on, and providing documentation for regulatory compliance.
PAM vs. Identity Suite: Standalone privileged access management solutions can fill in the security holes or weaknesses of generic password managers and authentication systems. However, many organizations may find a broader identity management solution to be more scalable and efficient than a standalone PAM solution.
Integrations: How well does each privileged access management solution integrate with other systems the organization already has? Consider preexisting authentication tools, SIEM systems, and other security software.
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