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What is Privileged Access Management Software?
When managing user accounts, companies should set a clear divide between customer-generated accounts and internal ones. The benefit of doing this is twofold. First, customer accounts and internal users have vastly different needs and requirements for your business. Second, compartmentalization helps prevent cross-contamination. More simply, if something goes wrong in your customer account management system, it won’t affect your internal account management system or vice versa.
Thankfully, different management systems exist specifically to focus on customer account management and internal accounts. While customer identity and access management (CIAM) software is built for handling your business’ customer-facing accounts and account security, privileged access management (PAM) software focuses on managing and securing your business’ own internal user accounts. PAM solutions also differ in a drastic way from CIAM solutions by dealing with access to critical systems (e.g., databases, servers, domains, and networks) as well as handling IT admin accounts.
Key Benefits of Privileged Access Management Software
- Manage employee access privileges to key business systems
- Centralize storage of employee information
- Monitor employee behavior, web-based threats, and unapproved internal actors
- Customize access privileges for users
- Monitor employee account behavior
Why Use Privileged Access Management Software?
There are many security benefits to PAM solutions. Older methods of key sharing and word-of-mouth communication are not sufficient in protecting information and business-critical systems. These tools will help security professionals and administrative personnel better track who in their organization has access to what and may document their actions or behaviors within privileged systems or applications.
Security — Privileged access management tools centralize the storage credentials and administration of access. Without IAM tools, this data can be more vulnerable to threats if it is not properly safeguarded. IAM tools are fortified with authentication features to limit viewing to only those administrators with granted access. These tools will also provide alerts for potential threats or users who have accessed sensitive data without permission.
Administration — Administrators can create databases, document user account histories, and view approved privileges, all of which helps to simplify the onboarding process. Administrators can quickly create new accounts and approve applications for new users to access. Some products even offer templates to have ready when adding employees to specific roles. The same goes for those no longer employed; administrators can quickly restrict their privileges or delete their account.
Cloud application management — Many cloud applications have the ability to connect dozens of applications, user credentials, and access privileges. Large, enterprise-sized companies will benefit greatly from having a cloud-based database that securely contains this sensitive data. Many products come with prebuilt integrations for hundreds of applications, while others may require customization or simply offer a limited variety of applications.
Who Uses Privileged Access Management Software?
Administrative professionals — Administrators—typically security administrators—will most often be the ones using privileged access management solutions. Other system admins may find use in PAM solutions as well, since certain roles may need more or less access to different business systems, pending their role.
Service providers — Third-party service providers will often manage cloud services directly and may need to integrate with other business systems or networks. Privileged access management tools allow for role-based access control to limit what information and systems can be accessed by third-party services providers or other external entities requiring access to sensitive information or business-critical systems.
Human resources — HR professionals may use privileged access management solutions to delegate access to internal employees or new hires during the onboarding process. Many PAM tools integrate with directory services and identity servers and other identity management solutions to integrate identity information and simplify privileged account management. These accounts may be set up for access to applications, cloud services, databases, or any other IT system requiring privileged access.
Internal employees — These are the end users accessing applications and networks by the allowance of administrative or security staff. These individuals may only interact with the PAM solution in that they use the credentials to access information. But some tools may provide a dashboard or access portal with information about what applications, networks, services, and databases they have been approved to access.
Privileged Access Management Software Features
These are a few common features of privileged access management software.
Local access — Local access functionality facilitates administrative access to on-premises systems, legacy applications, web-based applications, network resources, and servers.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) — MFA or 2FA functionality adds a supplementary level of security for systems by requiring SMS codes, security questions, or other verification methods before granting access.
Bulk changes — Bulk change functionality can simplify the administration, federation, and identity governance of individuals in large amounts through batch update capabilities.
Self-service access requests — Self-service features allow users to request access to applications, networks, or databases, automatically provisioning individuals if they meet policy requirements.
Partner access — Local access functionality facilitates administrative access to users who are not company employees but are either within the company’s local area network or outside the network.
BYOD support — Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) features enable users to use their own device(s) to access company applications.
Bidirectional profile synchronization — Synchronization keeps all profile attributes consistent across applications whether the change is made in the provisioning system or the application.
Policy management — This feature enables administrators to create access requirements and standards while applying policy controls throughout request and provisioning processes.
Role management — Role management features help administrators establish roles that provide authentication and access rights for each user in the role.
Approval workflows — Process and approval workflows allow business stakeholders and administrators to approve or reject requested changes to access via a defined workflow.
Compliance audits — Auditing features allow for standards and policies to be established while proactively auditing access rights against predefined requirements.
Smart provisioning — Self-learning or automated provisioning helps to reduce the amount of manual work associated with creating access rights, as well as managing changes and removals for on-premises and cloud-based applications.
Potential Issues with Privileged Access Management Software
Security — Security is always a concern, especially with technologies specialized in protecting sensitive information. Individuals should be sure the administration of PAM software is controlled only by trusted individuals. Integrations with cloud services should be secure, and businesses should read the fine print on service provider contracts to ensure their security standards are sufficient. Without proper security protocols in place, systems may be vulnerable to data breaches, privilege escalation, and dozens of other web-based threats from both internal and external actors.
Compliance requirements — New compliance requirements are emerging across the globe. As this occurs, it’s important to remain adaptable in planning to secure, store, and deliver sensitive information in compliance with international regulations. Compliance management features will help to audit identity stores and servers to ensure each person is properly documented and their sensitive data is stored securely. Compliance auditing tools are also great add-ons for ad-hoc compliance checks and can be helpful in general to ensure a well-rounded security system is in place.
Device compatibility — End-user devices pose potential security risks if they are not compatible with identity management tools. They also pose a threat if they are not properly updated, patched, and protected in general. Device compatibility, support for servers, virtual environments and any other system requiring privileged access should be documented and integrated with systems to ensure every device is properly protected.
