Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Privileged Access Management (PAM) encompasses cybersecurity strategies and technologies designed to control elevated access and permissions across an IT environment. It focuses on identities, users, accounts, processes, and systems, aiming to reduce an organization’s attack surface and mitigate threats from external attacks and insider risks. Central to PAM is the principle of least privilege, restricting access rights to the minimum necessary for authorized activities. Often referred to as privileged account management or privileged identity management (PIM), PAM is crucial for enhancing security posture, complying with regulations, and optimizing security investments. Integrated with identity and access management (IAM), PAM ensures fine-grained control, visibility, and auditability over privileged credentials and activities, safeguarding enterprise assets in today’s perimeterless, remote work environments.

Common PAM Questions

Before we continue let’s try and answer common questions about PAM so we could align our understanding of what PAM is and how it helps our business with our information security posture.

Questions	Answer
What is the difference between IAM and PAM?	IAM (Identity and Access Management) focuses on managing user identities and their access to resources, ensuring appropriate authentication and authorization. PAM (Privileged Access Management), on the other hand, specifically manages and secures accounts with elevated privileges, minimizing risks associated with their misuse.
What is PAM used for?	PAM is used to control and monitor access to privileged accounts and identities within an organization’s IT infrastructure. It helps enforce least privilege principles, enhances security by preventing unauthorized access, and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.
What is the difference between NAC and PAM?	NAC (Network Access Control) regulates access to a network based on policies, whereas PAM focuses on managing and securing privileged accounts and their access to systems and data within the network.
What is the difference between MFA and PAM?	MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) adds an additional layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification to access an account, whereas PAM controls and audits access specifically for accounts with elevated privileges, ensuring their secure use.
Why is NAC so popular?	NAC is popular because it helps organizations enforce security policies, control access to their networks, and protect against unauthorized devices and users, thereby enhancing overall network security and compliance.
Is NAC outdated?	NAC is not outdated but has evolved to address modern network security challenges, including the integration with other security solutions like endpoint security and zero trust architectures.
Why is NAC no longer available?	NAC is still available and widely used in various forms. Any perception of it being unavailable may stem from misconceptions or specific instances where organizations have transitioned to more advanced security measures.
When should NAC be used?	NAC should be used when organizations need to control and secure access to their networks, enforce security policies, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, especially in environments with diverse devices and users.
What is the controversy with NAC?	Controversies around NAC typically revolve around implementation challenges, potential disruptions to network operations during deployment, and complexities in integrating with existing IT infrastructures and security ecosystems.

Understanding Privileged Account Management

Privileged Account Management is a set of policies, procedures, and technologies used to control, monitor, and secure access to an organization’s critical information and resources. Privileged accounts have elevated access rights compared to regular user accounts, allowing them to perform administrative tasks such as configuring systems, installing software, and accessing sensitive data. In essences PAM will assist us manage the risk of privileged account with access to sensitive parts of our system, services and digital assets while allowing our business to continue and growth without limiting our employees to information that is needed for their day to day work.

Key Components of PAM

1. Access Control
   • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Assigns permissions based on the user’s role within the organization.
   • Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Grants privileged access only when needed, reducing the risk window.
2. Monitoring and Auditing
   • Session Monitoring: Tracks and records activities performed during privileged sessions.
   • Audit Logs: Provides a detailed record of who accessed what and when, which is essential for compliance and forensic analysis.
3. Password Management
   • Credential Vaulting: Stores privileged account passwords in a secure vault, ensuring they are protected and rotated regularly.
   • Password Policies: Enforces strong password policies to prevent unauthorized access.

Why Privileged Account Management is Important

PAM is crucial for several reasons:

1. Mitigating Insider Threats
   • Privileged accounts are a prime target for malicious insiders and external attackers. Effective PAM reduces the risk of these accounts being misused.
2. Compliance
   • Regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS mandate strict control over privileged access. PAM helps organizations meet these compliance requirements.
3. Reducing Attack Surface
   • By controlling and monitoring privileged access, PAM minimizes the potential points of attack, making it harder for cybercriminals to breach the system.

Implementing Privileged Account Management

Implementing PAM involves several best practices and steps:

1. Identify and Classify Privileged Accounts
   • Conduct a thorough inventory of all privileged accounts within your organization.
2. Enforce Least Privilege
   • Ensure users have only the access necessary to perform their job functions.
3. Automate Passwords Management
   • Use tools to automate the rotation and management of privileged account passwords.
4. Monitor and Record Sessions
   • Implement continuous monitoring to detect and respond to suspicious activities in real-time.
5. Regular Audits
   • Conduct regular audits to ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

PAM Best Practices

Let’s try and go over few of PAM best practices, However it’s important to mention that those are a few, and the text we write is is very limited to what organization or business can recevie by consulting a cyber security expert. Let’s dive in:

Strategy and Policy

Establish a Comprehensive Privilege Management Policy: Ensure robust governance over privileged access provisioning, de-provisioning, and management practices. Include inventorying and classification of privileged identities and enforce security best practices across the organization. Prepare for futuristic situations like lost of access or changes in relevant positions in the company and create policy to fit those cases.

Discovery and Inventory

Discover and Manage All Privileged Accounts: Conduct thorough discovery of all privileged accounts and credentials, including user, application, and service accounts, SSH keys, and default passwords. This process should cover diverse platforms and devices to identify security blind spots. Discover help manage those risks and understand all access point to organization sensitive and crucial digital assets which are valuable to the company. In some cases we had companies that discover that ex-employee have access to sensitive data after 2 years without a contract of employment!

Least Privilege Enforcement

Enforce Least Privilege Across Systems and Users: Implement strict controls to minimize privileges across end users, applications, and systems. Use just-in-time (JIT) and just-enough-access (JEA) principles to elevate privileges only when necessary and for the shortest duration. In some cases, companies discovered that a temporary access, code or password provided to an employee or even to a design partner (external employee, employee of another company) stay the same with high access level for more than 6 months after the project ended.

Segmentation and Access Controls

Segment Networks and Implement Microsegmentation: Separate systems and networks based on trust levels and access requirements. Employ microsegmentation to isolate resources and applications, reducing the impact of potential breaches. The easer way to understandrd it is that we as individual do not use the same password for online dating site/application like we use for our bank account or payment method application. Hence why segmentation is such an important approach to managing security risk.

Password Security

Enforce Strong Password Security Practices: Centralize credential management in a secure repository. Implement strong password policies, including regular rotation and elimination of shared passwords. Utilize dynamic secrets and single sign-on (SSO) to enhance security.

Infrastructure Lockdown

Secure Infrastructure Access: Proxy all infrastructure access through VPN-less technologies. Implement privileged access workstations (PAWs) and enforce least privilege principles to limit the scope of administrative activities. This approach relate to network and reduce external bad actor access to our digital assets, It illustrate the idea of “give less access as possible” to anyone, external or internal actors.

Monitoring and Auditing

Monitor and Audit All Privileged Activity: Deploy privileged session management (PSM) to monitor, record, and analyze privileged sessions. Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and detect any suspicious activities promptly. Monitoring and audit can be found within many of information security compliance efforts, hence why it’s part of PAM, the most notable of them is SOC2. When an actor, which request access or privilege try to access a system, whether if it fails or succeed or perform an action within our system – it has to be documented and written and review at some point.

Dynamic Access Management

Implement Dynamic, Context-Based Access Controls: Utilize real-time data and contextual information to determine and enforce access privileges dynamically. Adjust privileges based on user behavior, asset status, and potential threats.

Secure Automation Workflows

Secure Privileged Task Automation (PTA): Safeguard automated workflows that leverage privileged credentials. Ensure all automation processes are seamlessly integrated into PAM controls and monitored for security.

Threat Analytics and Baseline Monitoring

Implement Privileged User and Threat Analytics: Establish baseline behavior for privileged users and continuously monitor for deviations. Incorporate risk data to enhance the detection and response to potential privilege misuse or threats.

Integrating PAM with Risk Management

Integrating PAM with your overall risk management strategy enhances your organization’s ability to anticipate, identify, and mitigate potential threats. Effective PAM reduces the likelihood of data breaches, insider threats, and unauthorized access to critical systems.

“Effective risk management involves anticipating what can go wrong, identifying what can go wrong, and planning to avoid or mitigate those risks.”

The Future of Privileged Account Management

As cyber threats continue to evolve, so are our defenses tools, services and procedure. The future of PAM will likely see increased integration with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to predict and prevent malicious activities. Additionally, the rise of Zero Trust Architecture emphasizes the need for continuous verification, even for privileged users.

Conclusion

Privileged Account Management is a cornerstone of modern cyber security practices. By implementing robust PAM solutions, organizations can significantly reduce their risk exposure, ensure compliance with regulatory standards, and protect their most sensitive information from malicious actors. As part of a comprehensive information security management system (ISMS), PAM is not just a necessity but a strategic goal of any organization that want to be compliance with security information stanards.