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Privileged Access Management (PAM): A Complete Guide

In 2021, there was a 50% increase in the number of attacks on corporate networks compared to the previous year. This is pointed out by Check Point Research (CPR), Check Point’s Threat Intelligence division. And many of these attacks involve exploiting this type of credential. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigation 2021 report, 61% of surveyed data leaks involved privileged credentials. And the cost of this type of attack is also higher. According to IBM in the Cost of Data Breach Report 2021, while the average cost of a data leak is usually $ 4.24 million, when the data leak involves privileged credentials, this value can reach $ 4.37 million.

And, as it seems, with the increasing evolution of technology, cyber threats are expected to intensify further in 2022. This is because new technological tools widely adopted by organizations increase the attack surface, giving room for malicious agents to act.

One of the ways to minimize these risks is by investing in Privileged Access Management (PAM), which ensures the application of the least privilege, providing each user with only the necessary permissions to perform their activities.

In addition, this solution involves numerous other features and benefits, which we will explore in this article. To facilitate your reading, we divided our text into topics. They are:

  • Privileged Access Management (PAM): What Is It?
  • What Are the Different Types of Privileged Accounts?
  • Why Is It Important?
  • How Does Privileged Access Management (PAM) Work?
  • What Are the Main Features of a PAM Solution?
  • Key Benefits of PAM
  • What Are PAM Tools?
  • What Is the Difference Between IAM and PAM?
  • Privileged Access Management (PAM) FAQ
  • Attack on Microsoft: How Could a PAM Solution Have Reduced this Cyber Risk?
  • The Privileged Access Lifecycle Approach
  • DevSecOps and PAM
  • About senhasegura
  • Conclusion

Enjoy the read!

  • Privileged Access Management (PAM): What Is It?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a set of strategies necessary for organizations of all industries and sizes to protect privileged credentials, which represent cyber risks and can generate millionaire losses for a company.

In practice, privileged credentials enable administrators to make changes to applications, devices, and systems, being related to machines and human users. Its use has increased significantly in recent times due to the adoption of new technologies such as 5G internet, cloud computing, and the internet of things (IoT).

The big issue is that this also increases the risks, since many users can abuse their permissions, on purpose or not. Moreover, firing an employee in this context also requires caution: one must remove their privileges with the necessary anticipation to avoid malicious actions and eventual damages.

Not to mention external threats represented by hackers, who use privileged credentials to access the IT infrastructure, being able to steal or destroy data and files.

To reduce these threats, it is strongly recommended to invest in Privileged Access Management (PAM), using mechanisms developed to protect these administrative credentials.

In this sense, the tools specialized in PAM allow for maximizing security in the infrastructure, increasing visibility, and decreasing operational complexity. Gartner finds it virtually impossible to manage risk in privileged access without specialized PAM tools.

With PAM, it is possible to adopt the principle of least privilege, which guarantees each user and machine have only the necessary permissions to perform their functions. In this way, the damage caused by a cyberattack is limited, as the attack surface is reduced, that is, the invaders do not have access to the entire environment.

In addition, PAM tools make it possible to centrally manage access, facilitating the work of users, who do not need to remember several passwords or store them in insecure places, such as laptops or spreadsheets. PAM also allows information security officers to track operations performed by privileged users in real-time, protect cloud or hybrid environments, and maintain compliance with security standards.

Finally, with Privileged Access Management (PAM), it is also possible to detect unauthorized actions that endanger information security and business continuity.

  • What Are the Different Types of Privileged Accounts?

Privileged accounts and access have a strategic role within a business, after all, these resources are the ones that allow the management of a company’s IT infrastructure, in addition to enabling its employees to access the data necessary to make critical decisions.

Among the actions made possible by a privileged account, we can highlight:

  • Making changes to the system and software configuration;
  • Performing administrative tasks;
  • Creating and modifying user accounts;
  • Installing software;
  • Backing up data;
  • Updating security and patches;
  • Enabling interactive logins; and
  • Accessing privileged data.

Despite their relevance, these accounts pose a major cyber risk to organizations, as they are targeted by malicious attackers who wish to move through the network, accessing systems and data, without being detected or tracked.

This is because a privileged account does not necessarily need to be directed to human users and often provides high privileges to execute specific permissions, which are not always associated with the positions and roles of employees.

On the contrary, in most companies, many people share the same accounts, including the IT team, information security professionals, and outsourced employees, which generates cyber threats aggravated by the fact that people tend to reuse weak and easy-to-remember passwords.

In this sense, if you want to avoid cyber threats in your organization, we strongly recommend you protect your privileged accounts. Among these accounts, we can highlight:

  • Local Administrator Accounts

These accounts are not personal and provide local access on devices. Used by the IT team to configure workstations or perform maintenance, they usually use the same password on different platforms, in a shared way, becoming the target of malicious agents.

In practice, local administrator accounts enable hackers to discover and measure the security levels of an organization and are primarily responsible for excessive employee-oriented privileges.

They can also be used to control resources, create local users, and assign access control permissions and user rights.

You may not be aware of all the privileged accounts your company has.

  • Privileged User Accounts

Here, we refer to normal accounts, but with access to sensitive privileged data, which explains the threat they pose to malicious actors.

These are accounts that require close monitoring, as they can be shared between administrators, providing authority through the network.

Therefore, it is recommended to track and secure all privileged user accounts, using Privileged Access Management (PAM) to determine who exactly has access to these accounts, how often they are requested, and what type of access has been made.

  • Emergency Accounts

Emergency accounts are enabled only when a critical event occurs, which requires the restoration of systems and services or responses to cyber incidents.

These accounts are used when the normal service is unavailable and provide access to non-privileged users.

This process should require proper monitoring for audits but usually takes place manually, without proper maintenance and records.

  • Domain Administrator Accounts

Domain administrator accounts allow one to accomplish almost everything within an IT structure. That is, they should receive effective monitoring, as they pose a great risk in case of compromise, since they have access to all servers and workstations of a Windows domain.

Through these accounts, domain administrators fully control the ability to modify the association of all administrative accounts.

For this reason, domain administrator accounts should be restricted to the maximum extent, and their users should be added with caution. Moreover, it is of paramount importance to audit all actions performed with this type of privilege.

  • Service Accounts

The functionality of these local or privileged domain accounts is to enable applications and services to interact with operating systems, and an application may require domain access.

In the case of local service accounts, they hardly have their passwords modified, as this process can interfere with dependent systems. In addition, these passwords may be embedded, which makes it easier for hackers to work.

  • Application Accounts

The role of these accounts is to enable applications to access resources such as databases, networks, and automated tasks and provide access to other applications. In general, they provide access to a lot of the organization’s data and are shared.

The problem is that, in order for everyone to have access to them, they are usually stored in unencrypted text files, which can also be accessed by malicious agents.

Through remote access, these cybercriminals can modify system binaries or change default accounts to privileged ones and use them to move around the network.

  • Domain Service Accounts

Generally used for backup, analytics, software deployment, and security patch update solutions, domain service accounts allow you to bring together applications and systems that communicate and provide access to resources needed to call APIs, access databases, and issue reports.

Changing the passwords for these accounts is a complex process, so many organizations do not modify them or have specific procedures to deal with them.

  • Why Is It Important?

When we talk about the cybersecurity chain in an organization, people represent a great vulnerability. This is because employees are a potential insider threat, as they can abuse privileges, bringing risks, and there are also external threats posed by hackers, who invade privileged accounts to take advantage.

For this reason, it is important to rely on Privileged Access Management, so that people have limited access to what is necessary to perform their work and so that information security teams can detect malicious actions related to the use of privileges and combat them.

This need has intensified in the current context in which business is based on digital solutions such as DevOps, cloud computing, industrial process automation, and the internet of things, increasing the number of machines and applications that require privileged access.

These technologies are more difficult to monitor and manage than humans, since commercial applications may need access to various parts of the network, making room for intrusions.

For this reason, it is essential to invest in specific Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, which consider the privileges on-site, in the cloud, and hybrid environments and allows identifying atypical actions.

Endpoints and workstations are also targeted by hackers, as they contain privileges that can be exploited through the built-in administrator accounts. With this, they can perform a series of actions, such as stealing additional credentials, elevating privileges, and moving laterally across the network.

In this sense, Privileged Access Management (PAM) must be able to reduce risks by removing local administrator rights in workstations.

Another importance of PAM is related to compliance with important cybersecurity standards such as SOx, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST, FISMA, and the protection of companies against fines related to non-compliance with data protection laws, such as LGPD, GDPR, CCPA, Texas Privacy Act.

That is, organizations that invest in Privileged Access Management (PAM) as a cybersecurity strategy guarantee several advantages. They can reduce attack surfaces and cybersecurity risks while reducing operational costs and complexity, increasing visibility, and enabling compliance.

  • How Does Privileged Access Management (PAM) Work?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) makes it possible to reduce insider and external cyber threats in an organization in many ways. One of them is protecting credentials with sensitive data in a location with managed access.

In this way, it is possible to control access to information such as those related to intellectual property, finances, business progress, trade secrets, and the personal data of customers.

Moreover, regardless of whether they are working in person or at home, employees of an organization have access only to the resources necessary to perform their tasks.

Another role of Privileged Access Management (PAM) is to limit access to external content on websites and applications that can make organizations more vulnerable to cyber threats.

  • What Are the Main Features of a PAM Solution?

When we talk about privileged access, we refer to a type of special access, with permissions that go beyond an ordinary user. This feature enables companies to manage their business efficiently, protect their IT infrastructure and applications, and protect sensitive data.

As well as human users, non-human users, such as applications and machine identities, can have privileged access, creating vulnerabilities for cybersecurity, which can be mitigated with investment in Privileged Access Management (PAM).

The main function of this resource is to control and protect personal and high privilege credentials, as it ensures secure storage, access traceability, and segregation.

For this, Privileged Access Management (PAM) allows one to configure access groups and define who can use physical and remote access, respecting workflows of approval and validation of the explanation used by the requester.

In practice, the greater the number of privileges of a user, account, or process, the greater the internal and external risks represented by possible errors, abuses, and invasion. Therefore, Privileged Access Management (PAM) is essential not only to avoid risks but to mitigate their consequences if they become real.

  • Key Benefits of PAM

Privileged Access Management (PAM) promotes security against cyber threats from internal or external sources. The following advantages stand out:

  • Malware Protection

Many types of malware require high privileges to propagate. Thus, by reducing the excess of privileges through Privileged Access Management (PAM), one can prevent its installation or reduce its spread.

  • Improved Operational Efficiency

Restricting permissions to the minimum range of processes to operate helps to avoid incompatibility between systems or applications. Consequently, downtime is avoided.

  • Compliance

By providing more security, Privileged Access Management (PAM) enables an organization to benefit from audits and bring it into compliance with important regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FDDC, Government Connect, FISMA, and SOX, and respect the legislation, such as GDPR, LGPD, and CCPA.

  • What Are PAM Tools?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools are divided into three categories: Privileged Account and Session Management (PASM), Privileged Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM), and Secrets Management. Learn more about each of them:

  • PASM

With PASM solutions, credentials are created securely and distributed only through PAM, similar to what happens with a password manager. Thus, every time users need access, they receive only one temporary account with privileges. This account is used only once, while all activities are monitored and recorded. Key features of PASM solutions include:

  • Real-time Monitoring: by monitoring privileged sessions in real-time, one can interrupt unauthorized sessions as well as suspicious activities;
  • Password Manager: PASM offers a password manager with encryption to store private keys, passwords, and privileged account credentials;
  • Remote Session: to provide better visibility of the actions of each privileged user, operations are carried out through remote sessions;
  • Password Rotation: passwords must be changed after a certain period, on a certain day and time, or after their use by users;
  • Audit Resources: PASM solutions provide detailed information on privileged accounts through audit reports and resources;
  • Access Control for Shared Accounts: access to shared accounts must be possible from the use of the multifactor authentication or additional approvals;
  • Session Recording: Another functionality of PASM solutions is to allow the recording, storing, and organization of privileged sessions so that they can be reproduced or audited.

  • PEDM

Unlike PASM solutions, which provide temporary privileges, PEDM solutions grant privileges according to the role of a user, defining who can have access and what type of access is granted.

In practice, this tool allows the application of the principle of least privilege, as it assigns specific privileges to each user according to the actions they must perform.

It also allows one to protect critical systems using local system application, process management, and session control.

  • Secrets Management

Authentication credentials, such as passwords, SSH keys, API keys, and OAuth tokens, are considered secrets and their management must be adequate.

Although it is a broader scope, secrets also have the function of providing cybersecurity and avoiding unauthorized access to data and systems.

Efficient secret management prevents the invasion of network elements, enables the management of services in cloud environments, protects critical systems, and brings organizations into compliance with standards and legislation aimed at cybersecurity and data protection.

  • What Is the Difference Between IAM and PAM?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) and PAM are tools that have the function of controlling an organization’s data in common and complement each other with their different capabilities.

Through IAM, it is possible to manage users and legitimize access to resources easily, but it presents vulnerabilities when it comes to privileged accounts.

Therefore, the use of PAM is recommended, which works more elaborately and comprehensively, informing which sessions were started, what was performed, and who has access to the data.

That is, Privileged Access Management (PAM) makes it possible to control everything related to this information, limiting access and ensuring its secure storage.

  • Privileged Access Management (PAM) FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions about Privileged Access Management (PAM) and their respective answers:

  • Does a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution prevent all types of cyberattacks?

No. With the constant evolution of technology, the tools used by hackers are increasingly sophisticated. Therefore, there is no tool capable of preventing all types of cyberattacks. Moreover, the implementation of PAM involves three aspects: tools, people, and processes. In any case, it is useless to invest in the state-of-the-art PAM solutions without investing in establishing adequate PAM processes and cybernetic awareness of employees and third parties.

However, a PAM solution helps reduce risks by providing more network security. In addition, this tool must be optimized frequently to monitor the evolution of cyberattacks.

  • Can cyberattacks be carried out using privileged credentials?

Yes, cybercriminals are looking for ways to use privileged credentials to carry out cyberattacks. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, 61% of cyberattacks involve the exploitation of privileged credentials. In this sense, Privileged Access Management (PAM) is essential to ensure visibility and prevent them from infiltrating organizations’ networks.

  • Do all companies make use of Privileged Access Management (PAM)?

Unfortunately, not every organization invests in Privileged Access Management (PAM) and many suffer the consequences since invasions generate financial losses, loss of credibility, and even the closure of companies.

  • Does PAM implementation require the use of shared accounts?

No. Quite the opposite. The use of shared accounts poses a risk to the security of an organization. Therefore, it is recommended not to adopt this practice.

  • Does PAM make it possible to create non-privileged accesses?

Yes. PAM has modern corporate tools that allow it to go beyond the creation of privileged accesses and accounts, creating other types of access.

This is because Privileged Access Management (PAM) should facilitate connection to the system through security services, such as session and password management, and activity monitoring and logging.

  • How does a PAM solution help reduce cyber risks?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is extremely useful to avoid this type of problem, as it allows one to offer limited access to critical data, manage, and monitor privileged accounts and access.

This solution also allows addressing the life cycle of privileged access, before, during, and after access. In addition, it enables:

  • Storing and recording remote sessions;
  • Identifying changes in the user behavior patterns;
  • Blocking sessions in case of suspicious behavior; and
  • Providing secure remote access to employees and third parties through senhasegura Domum.
  • The Privileged Access Lifecycle Approach

The approach to protecting privileged access involves its entire life cycle, including actions taken before, during, and after access, which is impossible without PAM tools.

However, we emphasize that ensuring cybersecurity does not only involve the implementation of sophisticated solutions. It is also necessary to optimize processes, in addition to raising awareness and training people.

Regarding the life cycle of privileged access, some steps must be followed, and the first one is to identify, register, and manage devices and their credentials, which can be a challenge in the face of complex environments with devices from different vendors and models.

This measure allows a better visualization of the attack surface that can be used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s data.

The second step relates to the operations carried out during privileged access, which involves its management. In this sense, the professionals responsible for information security should monitor and record the actions taken during the accesses.

This makes it possible to evaluate cyber incidents that may occur, identify their causes, and solve them, ensuring compliance with audit requirements and meeting the deadlines for reporting data leaks stipulated in data protection laws.

Finally, the third step refers to the use of a tool that allows tracking previously-performed actions, which allows detecting abuses of privileges and violations and facilitates the audit process.

  • DevSecOps and PAM

DevSecOps brings together security practices in the DevOps process, enabling launch engineers and security teams to work collaboratively through agile and secure software development methods.

PAM contributes to DevSecOps throughout the software development cycle in several ways.

Firstly, Privileged Access Management (PAM) allows scanning the secrets so that companies have visibility into where the data and credentials are stored and who performs each action at what time.

It also allows the administration of shared secrets and passwords embedded into codes, making it possible to track activities in the IT environment, ensuring the integrity of the software and compliance with security standards.

Another benefit is that users only have the necessary access to carry out their activities, which protects the IT environment in case an account is compromised.

  • About senhasegura

senhasegura is developed by MT4 Tecnologia, a company that has more than 20 years of market and partners on five continents, covering 54 countries.

Our solutions began to be offered to meet the demand of one of the largest banks in the world, which needed to solve problems related to the management of privileged access to its critical structure.

With this, we received recognition from Gartner, one of the most important technology consultancies today, which addressed the solution in its Market Guide for Privileged Access Management report in 2016.

In addition, we, from senhasegura, were considered a Pam Challenger solution in the Gartner Magic Quadrant 2020 and 2021 reports and received the second-highest score in their 2021 Critical Capability (CC) report, which evaluated our technology as above the market average.

We also received the Customer’s Choice recognition twice in the Voice of the Customer 2021 report, being certified by Gartner as a Customer’s Choice in general and for medium-sized companies. Moreover, we obtained the highest score in Support Experience, with a score of 4.9 (out of 5).

We also received the Customer First badge, which recognizes vendors who request reviews from all customers in Gartner Peer Insights.

Among our advantages, the following stand out:

  • Quick Deployment and Simple Maintenance

Our solution offers a full-stack plug-and-play platform with quick deployment and simple maintenance. Each component of the product is connected so that your company has a faster return on investment (ROI) and no additional infrastructure costs.

  • Full Lifecycle Management of Privileged Accesses

Our goal is to eliminate the excess of privileges in the organizations that hire us, since privileged accounts and access are fundamental concepts for information security, and today there is a high volume of privileged credentials in the world.

With our PAM platform, one can gather all privileged identities and access them in one place and follow the complete privileged access management lifecycle, which ensures governance before, during, and after these accesses.

  • No Extra Costs

Being offered in virtual machine format, our solution does not require hidden costs for additional licensing, such as database licenses and operating systems.

This is because senhasegura has features that enable new integrations every four hours, including legacy infrastructure.

In this way, the organization can more accurately plan its investment by deploying PAM in its IT environment.

  • Customized Offer of High-Performance Hardware Appliances

Designed for PAM, senhasegura PAM Crypto Appliance offers advanced security requirements that enable you to meet physical security requirements.

senhasegura can be used in High Availability and Disaster Recovery architectures, in active-active, and active-passive configuration scenarios, regardless of the number of cluster members, resulting in better scalability.

  • DevOps Secrets Management

With senhasegura, companies still ensure better threat visibility and more security in the implementation of DevSecOps, since its resources include scanning the DevOps pipeline and onboarding process through integration with CI/CD tools, increasing the visibility of secrets.

  • Integrated Digital Certificate Management

Our platform is the only one that provides an Integrated Digital Certificate Management solution, which allows one to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and costs for implementation and training.

  • Solutions for Cloud Infrastructure

The PAM platform includes solutions focused on cloud computing, reducing costs for organizations that do not have identity privilege management and cloud governance. Thus, it promotes Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), which grants visibility to unnecessary privileges, without impacting the agility necessary for the work of developers.

We also work for:

  • Avoiding the interruption of activities of companies, which may impair their performance;
  • Performing automatic audits on the use of privileges;
  • Performing automatic audits on privileged changes to detect privilege abuses;
  • Providing advanced PAM solutions;
  • Reducing cyber risks;
  • Bringing organizations into compliance with audit criteria and standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Now, learn about our different modules and their main capabilities:

  • Endpoint PAM

Our Endpoint PAM solution makes it possible to protect enterprise networks connected to devices such as laptops, tablets, and mobile phones from the action of malicious actors, allowing one to perform functions that require privileges and start applications with automatic insertion of credentials.

For this, applications that use this type of privilege are listed and have their use limited to authorized users. Moreover, one can use a token for authentication on the device.

Another capability is the configuration of blacklists, which allows one to include unauthorized applications and map devices on workstations.

  • Domum Remote Access

This product allows one to manage remote access for employees and third parties within an IT structure, protecting privileged credentials and strengthening information security against hacker intrusion into corporate networks.

Through senhasegura Domum, it is possible to rely on the remote session capabilities of senhasegura PAM, which provide access based on the Zero Trust model and ensure compliance with the access controls of the new legislation, among its benefits.

In addition, this solution exempts the need for a VPN or additional configuration for remote users.

  • PAM SaaS

Compliance with cybersecurity management standards, regulations, and policies is also a benefit provided by PAM SaaS.

This tool aims to ensure information security in the context of cloud computing by managing the credentials used by administrators to access critical systems.

Suitable for companies of all industries and sizes, PAM SaaS allows one to simplify efforts and reduce operating costs for privileged access management.

  • PAM Core

PAM Core aims to control the use of generic and privileged credentials, enabling secure storage, segregation of access, and full traceability of use.

In this way, it is possible to prevent cyberattacks, as well as leaks of critical data, in addition to recording and monitoring activities carried out during privileged sessions, avoiding the misuse of privileges, managing and resetting passwords, and issuing audit reports with ease.

  • DSM

DevOps Secrets Management (DSM) adds security to the software development process by reducing risks related to improper access to sensitive data and lowering costs with Cloud IAM embedded in the solution.

This technology makes the use of DevOps (Development and Operations) methodologies more secure, without taking the focus away from the automation and agility needed for efficient delivery.

  • Cloud IAM

Our Cloud IAM is used to control users’ access to cloud resources and services.

This solution makes it possible to isolate, record, and monitor all sessions, reconfigure default passwords, and assign individual responsibilities to privileged users.

It also incorporates task automation tools to provide new accounts with transparency and allows the integration of two layers of security for privileged accounts, among other capabilities.

  • Digital Certificate Management

Many companies have their activities interrupted due to the expiration of digital certificates, since their management tends to be carried out through spreadsheets (manually), which can cause human failures.

The good news is that it is possible to manage the lifecycle of digital certificates through senhasegura Certificate Manager, which allows one to increase the level of security of applications with secure certificates, respecting the requirements and security policies of the organization.

  • PAM Crypto Appliance

This solution, based on a hardware appliance, has the benefits of its availability, regardless of the infrastructure and the virtualization tool, as well as the high availability and disaster recovery technologies built into the product.

It protects against physical attack, storage of symmetric keys in hardware, encryption key protection in hardware, and destruction of data in case of appliance violation.

  • PAM Crypto Virtual Appliance

PAM Crypto Virtual Appliance is aimed at customers who have a virtualization infrastructure and wish to opt for this type of architecture.

This tool was developed to run in virtual or cloud environments, ensuring the necessary security and performance requirements.

  • PAM Load Balancer

PAM Load Balancer is our load balancing solution and has the benefits of eliminating costs with suppliers of balancing technologies, optimizing resources, which ensures greater bandwidth, less latency and fault tolerance, as well as less time for troubleshooting.

  • Conclusion

In this article, you saw that:

  • Privileged credentials allow changes to be made to applications, devices, and systems accessed by machines and human users;
  • Their use has grown in recent times due to the adoption of new technologies, also increasing cyber risks;
  • To reduce these threats, it is recommended to invest in Privileged Access Management (PAM);
  • With PAM, it is possible to adopt the principle of least privilege, which guarantees each user and machine have only the necessary permissions to perform their functions.
  • PAM also makes it possible to manage access in a centralized way;
  • Privileged Access Management (PAM) also allows the detection of unauthorized actions;
  • There are different types of privileged accounts, including local administrator accounts, privileged user accounts, emergency accounts, domain administrator accounts, service accounts, and application accounts;
  • Endpoints and workstations are targeted by hackers, but can be protected through Privileged Access Management (PAM);
  • PAM provides compliance with important cybersecurity standards and protects companies against fines for non-compliance with data protection laws, such as the LGPD;
  • Privileged Access Management (PAM) limits access to external content on websites and applications, which can generate vulnerability to cybersecurity;
  • Privileged access is a type of special access, with permissions that go beyond an ordinary user;
  • The vulnerabilities created with this type of access can be mitigated with investment in Privileged Access Management (PAM);
  • The benefits of PAM include: malware protection, operational performance, and compliance;
  • PAM tools are divided into three categories: PASM, PEDM, and secrets;
  • IAM and PAM are tools that control a company’s data and complement each other;
  • The approach to protecting privileged access covers its entire life cycle;
  • PAM contributes to DevSecOps throughout the software development cycle.

Did you like our article on Privileged Access Management (PAM)? Then share it with someone!

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About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Segura®
Segura® strive to ensure the sovereignty of companies over actions and privileged information. To this end, we work against data theft through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases and a multitude of devices. In addition, we pursue compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.

You don’t know anything about Google Cloud monitoring

The fact that data centers have evolved a lot is undeniable. This has enabled storage evolution and the execution of online applications.

Now we often talk about hybrid clouds. 

*Yes, we don’t even take the time to explain what digital clouds are anymore and we even assume that everyone has their own, small but they have them.But when it comes to doing things big, it’s unavoidable to mention the giant Google Cloud®!

Pandora FMS and the famous Google Cloud monitoring

Pandora FMS® (PFMS) during the year 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, walked slowly but without any pause, their team did not stop at all. 

And there were great improvements in quality of use in 2020!

As it happens, that’s when we introduced Google Cloud monitoring. 

Let’s look at everything in that term!

Google Cloud Platform

Known simply as Google Cloud, this platform encompasses more than one hundred components (digital products). 

It is obvious that I will name only a few, since Pandora FMS does not monitor them all

… yet.

We will classify them in several main sections:

  1. Compute Engine: To run applications and virtual machines, Kubernetes, functions as services, among others.
  2. Storage & Databases: For file storage and execution of database engines, all this integrated with the previous point.
  3. Networking: For server load balancing (CDN, DNS, etc.).
  4. Big Data: Overly speaking, analysis of large, gigantic volumes of data that are then converted into usable information.
  5. Identity & Security: Everything related to online identification for own or third parties.
  6. IoT: For the Internet of Things.
  7. API Platform: Everything necessary for third party companies to communicate with all the paraphernalia of Google services and applications. *If you don’t know what an API is, here’s what you need to know.
  8. Cloud AI: The artificial intelligence cloud with lots of resources, limited only by your wallet.

*The latter is important, your wallet, not artificial intelligence. Because it is necessary to direct debit a bank account,  or a good credit card, the payments of all these services.

**At the time of writing, I do not know if the new Google Pay (formerly called Google Wallet ) is accepted as a means of payment (most likely, because it is from the same company).

In the case of Pandora FMS monitoring of Google Cloud it is only available for the Enterprise version.

But erase those sad faces because you can request a 30-day free trial by accessing this link!

Again the change

If there’s one thing that characterizes Google since I saw it born, it’s the constant change.

As well as the number of products and services they have is immense, no  less small is the number of them that have been discontinued or withdrawn from the catalog. 

While I still keep my Hotmail email account (not available to new users), Google at most has come to offer some product similar to the one they withdraw, accompanied by a package of instructions for us to do the data migrations. 

When they say it’s over, it’s over.

Therefore, dear readers of the future, if this has happened again, please write it down in the comments below.

 *We read them all.

Monitoring Google Cloud

Pandora FMS is able to monitor Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, so Google Cloud monitoring shares certain similarities.

Broadly speaking, the procedure is as follows:

  1. We activated the encryption of PFMS database.
  2. If the cloud component is not installed, you may download it from PFMS Enterprise library.
  3. Now you have to manage the credentials at Google level.
  4. Generate a service user in Google Cloud, and download a file in JSON format.
  5. With this JSON file you will create the authentication account in Pandora FMS.
  6. Once this is done, go back to Discovery Cloud and use the new credentials to access Google.
  7. Select the monitoring you need and click accept and wait for all connections to be made. This link contains the metrics available from Compute Engine.
  8. You will then have the main Google Cloud agent, one for each zone in which you have machines, and another agent for each virtual machine.

*Our official documentation provides more detail of the entire procedure.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

日本系統整合商伊藤忠攜手訊連科技FaceMe®開發之「車輛檢驗資訊系統」 獲豐田汽車車輛品管採用

【2022年6月10日,台北訊】AI人臉辨識領導廠商訊連科技(5203.TW)(總部:台灣新北市)宣布旗下人臉辨識引擎FaceMe®與日本系統整合商ITOCHU Techno-Solutions(伊藤忠テクノソリューションズ株式会社,以下簡稱CTC)合作。CTC利用FaceMe開發之「車輛檢驗資訊系統」(検査情報システム)獲豐田汽車採用,以優化車輛品質管理。

車輛檢驗資訊系統
「車輛檢驗資訊系統」(検査情報システム)是用於管理整車品質管理的系統。藉由FaceMe快速且精準的人臉辨識技術,系統能確保只有符合資格的檢驗員才能進行檢驗工作,其無接觸、高精準臉部辨識的特點,可有效提高生產力。此外,無論使用者是否配戴口罩或帽子皆可完成身分驗證,在疫情期間可有效防止疾病傳播。


將FaceMe人臉辨識部署於Android裝置後,檢查員將可於配戴帽子、護目鏡、口罩的情況下刷臉完成身分驗證

為何選擇 FaceMe

為避免新冠疫情持續蔓延,人員需要在配戴口罩的情況下進行人臉識別,而綜觀人臉辨識市場,FaceMe在配戴口罩時仍可精準辨識,效能表現優異,因而決定採用。

「考量COVID-19疫情,工作人員必須時時配戴口罩。在評估配戴口罩時的人臉辨識效能與回應速度後,我們選擇採用FaceMe。」豐田汽車主任今任徳光表示,「它不僅可以提高生產效率,也讓工作人員能更專注於檢測的工作上。此外,FaceMe人臉辨識功能不論在工廠特有的明亮環境或車內的陰暗環境中都能支援,這點非常有幫助。」

「我們很榮幸將FaceMe SDK人臉辨識引擎與CTC的車輛檢驗資訊系統進行整合,並獲得擁有世界頂尖品質、代表日本製造水平的豐田汽車所採用。」訊連科技董事長暨執行長黃肇雄表示,「FaceMe SDK具有世界一流的準確度與防偽技術,用於車輛檢驗資訊系統中,有助提高豐田汽車品管控制的便利性與生產力,還能有效防止廠區內的疾病傳播,我們也看好像這樣的智慧工廠市場應用,能持續增長。」

「FaceMe採用深度神經網路的AI技術,具有辨識速度快、辨識準確度高的特性,是一款相當優秀的人臉辨識服務,」CTC部長松長和孝說明,「客戶對FaceMe的評價很好,我們也很高興這次能將FaceMe整合至系統中。此外,這次在驗證期間,訊連科技也給予我們很多的支援,對我們大有助益。目前我們正計劃將專案擴展到其他工廠中,感謝訊連科技一直以來的支持。」

About Version 2

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

關於CyberLink
訊連科技創立於1996年,擁有頂尖視訊與音訊技術的影音軟體公司,專精於數位影音軟體及多媒體串流應用解決方案產品研發,並以「抓準技術板塊,擴大全球行銷布局」的策略,深根台灣、佈局全球,展現亮麗的成績。訊連科技以先進的技術提供完美的高解析影音播放效果、以尖端的科技提供完整的高解析度擷取、編輯、製片及燒錄功能且完整支援各種高解析度影片及音訊格式。產品包括:「威力導演」、「PowerDVD」、「威力製片」、「威力酷燒」等。

關於 ITOCHU Techno-Solutions (CTC)
ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Co., Ltd. (伊藤忠テクノソリューションズ株式会社,簡稱CTC)是一家綜合型IT服務公司,為訊連科技之重要合作夥伴之一。從IT諮詢到設計、開發/架構、營運/維護支援等服務,致力結合先進的IT解決方案和雲端服務解決客戶問題。CTC在電信、廣播、製造、金融、零售、公部門與公益、生命科學、科學及工程等領域提供客戶最佳服務。

CTC官網:https://www.ctc-g.co.jp/

Something IT professionals need to know and miss

At PAndora FMS we have IT professionals on an altar. Literally, one next to the water dispenser in the office. I’m serious! It even has its blessed liturgical cloth, its flattering parsley, its candles and the incense! But there are still things that these people miss. Here’s a hint: it’s related to ITOM.

IT Operations Management (ITOM) and automation

We all agree in the industry that IT professionals waste too much time every day, struggling with minor tasks within IT Operations Management (ITOM). 

And it is that ITOM covers everything necessary to support the network infrastructure that provides IT services. 

This includes both the hardware (switches, servers, data center firewalls…) as well as the company’s network and the tools needed to make sure everything works properly.

According to the latest surveys, 78% of IT professionals say they spend at least 10% of their time proactively optimizing their environments. 

This extra time spent on maintenance and conservation obviously takes time from proactive optimization. 

And this is where automation comes in. 

Automation is that miracle from heaven that sets IT professionals free to stop wasting time and focus on things that really matter, and not on boring tasks!

Of course, most IT professionals know firsthand the value of automation. 

That’s why they have their altar. *Visitable during working hours, and donations are accepted. 

But automation has not yet reached ubiquity regarding ITOM. 

And it’s time for that to change!

That’s why we want you to start considering automating the following types of tasks:

  • Complex tasks with multiple steps
  • Repetitive routine tasks or tasks triggered by a recurring event
  • Tasks where a large amount of data needs to be filtered based on specific, predefined criteria

As we said, in these cases, automation can help the incredible intellects of IT professionals, and their almost intrinsic creativity to focus on other needs.
Perhaps, even with automation, you will minimize the possibility of human error in tasks.

What is the next step?

Certainly the next step is to consider which are the most relevant ITOM tools. 

If your megalomaniac goal is, for example, to optimize a large government network, look for the products best designed to scale and then make sure the vendor and product are approved for use in government networks. 

Here, for example, the most relevant ITOM tools could be:

  • Performance monitoring
  • Configuration management
  • Security and intrusion detection and prevention
  • Troubleshooting

If you then relax and have a tea and take enough time to consider specific processes that can benefit from automation, such as automating network configurations, you may help out your IT professionals do more efficiently tasks like: 

Meeting compliance requirements, implementing configuration changes quickly and efficiently, or reducing downtime caused by faulty devices.

And network configuration automation is only one area from among them all. 

Think about the possibility of automating workflows and your IT staff crying dramatically when finally getting their lives back! 

Or automating tasks initiated by mobile devices, etc.

Prepare for change!

Naturally, automation leads us to the development of a new type of skills within IT staff. 

The more tasks are automated, the more IT professionals become automation supervisors instead of performing those tasks themselves.

That is, while before more specialized staff needed to understand perfectly what the inner workings of each piece of hardware were like, with automation, these people need to be much more aware of how the software works. 

They need to understand application programming interfaces and how they can dictate things like policies, rules, and user access.

Conclusions

ITOM and automation together are virtually the panacea for IT professionals. 

The secret of a successful transition is to go little by little, in a gradual and logical progression. 

Securing tasks, processes, and skill sets so that they move together toward a better future filled with altars in the office for IT professionals!

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

Why back up Microsoft 365?

If you have children, you’re probably familiar with the feeling you experience when you suddenly realize how much they’ve grown over a period of time. Day by day, those changes may seem small, but when looking across years or decades, they add up. So it is with Office 365, which has grown to have more than 345 million paid seats and generates a large part of the nearly US$100 billion that Microsoft will book for cloud revenue this year. I’m old enough to remember Microsoft’s proud announcement that Exchange Server itself had crossed the US$1 billion/year revenue mark back in 2004.

“But what does that have to do with why I should back up my Microsoft 365 data?” you ask. Good question. In fact, it’s a great question, and one that leads to lots of other questions (thus the structure of this post as a sort of informal Q & A). 

This steady, sustained, and impressive revenue growth came about because organizations value the collaboration and communication features in Office 365 highly enough not just to subscribe, but to stay on the platform. Every minute that your users are using Office 365 applications and services, they’re creating and editing the data that your business needs to operate.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

Lots of people tend to think that bad things only happen to other people. It’s natural to assume that the extensive data protection measures in Microsoft’s platform will keep your data safe—but that’s not entirely true. In future articles, I’ll dig into specific parts of the Microsoft data protection world and talk about their strengths and weaknesses, but for now, let’s say that it’s more accurate to say that Microsoft’s native data protection measures may protect you against some types of catastrophic data loss, but there are still lots of things to watch out for. 

First, not all data items are created equal; that email in your sent items folder accepting the meeting request for Bob’s retirement party isn’t worth as much as the Excel file that has your end-of-quarter sales data. To make this problem worse, let’s not forget that not all workloads are equally well protected. Some services have recycle bins, and some do not. Some provide support for document versioning, and some don’t.

Second, consider which threats you really need to protect against. Aliens probably aren’t going to attack Microsoft’s entire network and burn down all their data centers—the biggest risk you actually face isn’t Microsoft permanently losing your data (although it does sometimes happen).

Instead, there are some bigger risks you face, including, but not limited to, these:

  • Service outages: A Microsoft outage will keep you from getting access to your data. The multiple outages in Azure multi-factor authentication that blocked users from logging on to the service in 2019, 2020, and 2021 are great examples. 
  • Oops: A mistake by your own users or administrators, or by Microsoft’s service team, will delete some important data. (KPMG IT blunder erases 145,000 users’ data). 
  • Malicious deletion: A security breach or problem will cause you to lose access to your data, either because ransomware has removed or encrypted it or because something else in the chain gets broken.

We sum these potential causes up with a simple phrase: mishaps, mistakes, and malice.

As you can see, the native data protection features included with the service may not help in all these scenarios, especially because you may have important data in workloads that don’t have much protection. Having an independent cloud-based backup with no dependencies on Microsoft’s services can preserve your ability to access your data even during an Azure AD or other outage.

“Is Microsoft responsible for my data?”

In a word: No, as you can see from this Microsoft article. Microsoft essentially says that they’re responsible for security (which in this case I’ll say means the confidentiality, integrity, and availability)of the infrastructure used to run Office 365, but that in the end you are the owner of, and responsible for, the data itself. 

If you carefully read the Office 365 or Azure service descriptions, you won’t find any promises by Microsoft that say things like “we promise to protect your data” or “we’ll never lose your data.” Instead, when you examine their security best practices for various parts of their estate, you’ll see recommendations to back up your data, test your backups, maintain good personnel security, and so on—all things that Microsoft may also be doing, but on which you probably shouldn’t bet your company.

“Do I really need a third-party backup tool?”

It’s an old cliché that aviation regulations are “written in blood.” When it comes to backups, it might be less dramatic and more fair to say that backup best practices are written in tears, lost dollar bills, or maybe in shredded resumes.  

The risk of you unrecoverably losing all of your M365 data may seem small, but the impact of such a loss would be very high for most of us. This is especially true when you consider that a worrying number (86%) of ransomware operators haven’t been restoring data even after the ransom’s been paid!  

The risk of unrecoverably losing some of your data, though, grows in line with multiple factors: how much data you have, how much of it is high-value, how many people have write access to it, and how emerging security threats hold that data at risk. Having an immutable copy of your important data stored securely in an independent cloud is terrific insurance against both large- and small-scale risks. 

If you don’t have third-party backup and Microsoft cannot restore your data, you’re just out of luck. We went with Keepit to ensure both consistent backup and long-term retention of our data.

Ken Schirrmacher, Sr. Director of IT/Interim CIO at Park ‘N Fly

“What do I do now?”

If you haven’t ever lost data because of malice, mistakes, or mishaps, maybe you’re not convinced of the value of robust, cloud-independent backup for your data. Sadly, though, most of us have indeed lost data for some (or maybe all!) of these reasons.  

Either way, the first step in deciding how to best protect your SaaS data is to take an honest and comprehensive look at the potential losses you’d face from not having timely access to your critical data. The built-in reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center will help tell you who your most active users are and who has how much data in OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange Online. Couple that with your own knowledge of your business and you’ll get a good start on deciding where the potential catastrophes might lie. 

Next, think clearly about the risks you face, both from the standpoint of your IT organization’s capability and maturity but also from the overall standpoint of your business. Many organizations have increased their spending on security—which is often beneficial!—but haven’t done anything to improve their ability to protect against mishaps or mistakes, much less to carefully plan and test a recovery strategy.

If, after doing these things, you realize that some or all of your Microsoft 365 data is valuable enough for your company to protect to continue day-to-day operations, then you can read more about how Keepit Backup and Recovery for Microsoft 365 can help protect your data on our product page.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.