Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a type of identity management and branch of cybersecurity that focuses on the control, monitoring, and protection of privileged accounts within an organization. Accounts with privileged status grant users enhanced permissions, making them prime targets for attackers due to their extensive access to vital systems and sensitive data. [1]
PAM can be implemented as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution or an on-premises offering, providing organizations with the flexibility to choose the model that best fits their needs. The objective is to safeguard, regulate, observe, examine, and manage privileged access across diverse environments and platforms. PAM solutions adopt Zero Trust and least-privilege frameworks, guaranteeing that users receive only the essential computer access control needed for their roles, thereby minimizing the likelihood of unauthorized entry or security incidents.
PAM focuses on securing and overseeing privileged accounts to prevent unauthorized access to critical resources, while SNMP is used for monitoring and managing network devices. These two components can work together to enhance overall network security by ensuring that SNMP configurations and access controls are protected and only accessible to authorized personnel, thus safeguarding against potential security breaches and unauthorized modifications to network settings. [2] [3]
In July 2023, the Keeper Security survey revealed that only 43% of SMBs have deployed Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, significantly lower than other leading security technologies such as network, email, endpoint security, and SIEM tools, which all exceed 75% deployment. [4]
PAM solutions play a crucial role in reducing security vulnerabilities, adhering to information security standards, and protecting an organization's IT infrastructure. They establish a comprehensive system for handling privileged accounts, encompassing the gathering, safeguarding, administration, verification, documentation, and examination of privileged access: [5]
According to Security-First Compliance for Small Businesses book the best practices for managing privileged access (PAM) encompass:
The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behavior. Devices that typically support SNMP include cable modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, and more.
Authorization or authorisation is the function of specifying access rights/privileges to resources, which is related to general information security and computer security, and to access control in particular. More formally, "to authorize" is to define an access policy. For example, human resources staff are normally authorized to access employee records and this policy is often formalized as access control rules in a computer system. During operation, the system uses the access control rules to decide whether access requests from (authenticated) consumers shall be approved (granted) or disapproved (rejected). Resources include individual files or an item's data, computer programs, computer devices and functionality provided by computer applications. Examples of consumers are computer users, computer software and other hardware on the computer.
In computing, the superuser is a special user account used for system administration. Depending on the operating system (OS), the actual name of this account might be root, administrator, admin or supervisor. In some cases, the actual name of the account is not the determining factor; on Unix-like systems, for example, the user with a user identifier (UID) of zero is the superuser, regardless of the name of that account; and in systems which implement a role-based security model, any user with the role of superuser can carry out all actions of the superuser account. The principle of least privilege recommends that most users and applications run under an ordinary account to perform their work, as a superuser account is capable of making unrestricted, potentially adverse, system-wide changes.
FCAPS is the ISO Telecommunications Management Network model and framework for network management. FCAPS is an acronym for fault, configuration, accounting, performance, security, the management categories into which the ISO model defines network management tasks. In non-billing organizations accounting is sometimes replaced with administration.
Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID to any of several related, yet independent, software systems.
Balabit was a Hungarian security firm specializing in the development of IT security systems and related services that help businesses reduce the risk of data breaches associated with privileged accounts.
An information security audit is an audit of the level of information security in an organization. It is an independent review and examination of system records, activities, and related documents. These audits are intended to improve the level of information security, avoid improper information security designs, and optimize the efficiency of the security safeguards and security processes. Within the broad scope of auditing information security there are multiple types of audits, multiple objectives for different audits, etc. Most commonly the controls being audited can be categorized as technical, physical and administrative. Auditing information security covers topics from auditing the physical security of data centers to auditing the logical security of databases, and highlights key components to look for and different methods for auditing these areas.
Database security concerns the use of a broad range of information security controls to protect databases against compromises of their confidentiality, integrity and availability. It involves various types or categories of controls, such as technical, procedural or administrative, and physical.
There are several forms of software used to help users or organizations better manage passwords:
Security controls are safeguards or countermeasures to avoid, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks to physical property, information, computer systems, or other assets. In the field of information security, such controls protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.
A number of computer operating systems employ security features to help prevent malicious software from gaining sufficient privileges to compromise the computer system. Operating systems lacking such features, such as DOS, Windows implementations prior to Windows NT, CP/M-80, and all Mac operating systems prior to Mac OS X, had only one category of user who was allowed to do anything. With separate execution contexts it is possible for multiple users to store private files, for multiple users to use a computer at the same time, to protect the system against malicious users, and to protect the system against malicious programs. The first multi-user secure system was Multics, which began development in the 1960s; it wasn't until UNIX, BSD, Linux, and NT in the late 80s and early 90s that multi-tasking security contexts were brought to x86 consumer machines.
BeyondTrust (formerly Symark) is an American company that develops, markets, and supports a family of privileged identity management / access management (PIM/PAM), privileged remote access, and vulnerability management products for UNIX, Linux, Windows and macOS operating systems.
Netwrix is a Frisco, Texas-based private IT security software company that develops software to help companies identify and secure sensitive data and assist with compliance auditing. After eight acquisitions the company's team geographically expanded to Latin America, UK, Germany, France, Asia, USA as well as other countries. The company's flagship products are Netwrix Auditor and StealthAUDIT that help information security and governance professionals manage sensitive, regulated and business-critical data.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computer security:
In cybersecurity, cyber self-defense refers to self-defense against cyberattack. While it generally emphasizes active cybersecurity measures by computer users themselves, cyber self-defense is sometimes used to refer to the self-defense of organizations as a whole, such as corporate entities or entire nations. Surveillance self-defense is a variant of cyber self-defense and largely overlaps with it. Active and passive cybersecurity measures provide defenders with higher levels of cybersecurity, intrusion detection, incident handling and remediation capabilities. Various sectors and organizations are legally obligated to adhere to cyber security standards.
Internet security awareness or Cyber security awareness refers to how much end-users know about the cyber security threats their networks face, the risks they introduce and mitigating security best practices to guide their behavior. End users are considered the weakest link and the primary vulnerability within a network. Since end-users are a major vulnerability, technical means to improve security are not enough. Organizations could also seek to reduce the risk of the human element. This could be accomplished by providing security best practice guidance for end users' awareness of cyber security. Employees could be taught about common threats and how to avoid or mitigate them.
The zero trust security model, also known as zero trust architecture (ZTA), and sometimes known as perimeterless security, describes an approach to the strategy, design and implementation of IT systems. The main concept behind the zero trust security model is "never trust, always verify", which means that users and devices should not be trusted by default, even if they are connected to a permissioned network such as a corporate LAN and even if they were previously verified.
Identity threat detection and response (ITDR) is a cybersecurity discipline that includes tools and best practices to protect identity management infrastructure from attacks. ITDR can block and detect threats, verify administrator credentials, respond to various attacks, and restore normal operations. Common identity threats include phishing, stolen credentials, insider threats, and ransomware.
Namespace security is a digital security discipline that refers to the practices and technologies employed to protect the names and identifiers within a digital namespace from unauthorized access, manipulation, or misuse. It involves ensuring the integrity and security of domain names and other digital identifiers within networked environments, such as the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), software development namespaces and containerization platforms. Effective namespace security is crucial for maintaining the reliability and trustworthiness of brands and their digital services and for preventing cyber threats including impersonation, domain name hijacking or spoofing of digital identifiers like domain names and social media handles.