What is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a security solution designed to protect a business by monitoring, detecting, and preventing unauthorized access to its most critical resources. The main objective of PAM is to ensure that individuals are granted only the minimum level of access required to perform their jobs, which significantly helps in preventing data breaches.

What is a Privileged Account?

A privileged account is any account that has more permissions and access rights than a standard user account. These accounts can take several forms, including:

• Superuser accounts: These accounts, such as ‘root’ on Linux or ‘Administrator’ on Windows, have virtually unrestricted access to the system.
• Domain administrator accounts: These accounts possess the highest level of control across an entire network domain.
• Local administrator accounts: These provide full control over a specific server or workstation.
• Application administrator accounts: These are used to manage specific software and its associated data.
• Business privileged user accounts: These accounts grant high-level access based on a person’s specific job function, such as roles in finance or human resources.
• Emergency accounts: Also known as ‘break-glass’ accounts, they provide temporary administrator access during a crisis or disaster.

The Core Principles of PAM

An effective Privileged Access Management strategy is built on three fundamental principles:

1. Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): This is the cornerstone of a robust security strategy. It dictates that users and systems should only be given the bare minimum access they need to perform their duties.
2. Just-in-Time (JIT) access: This principle eliminates the need for users to have powerful permissions around the clock. Instead, elevated access is granted on-demand for a specific task and a limited time, and is automatically revoked once the task is complete.
3. Continuous monitoring and auditing: This involves privileged session management (PSM), which actively monitors, records, and controls all activity that occurs during a privileged session. This creates a clear, unalterable audit trail for accountability and investigation.

Why is PAM Important?

Implementing a PAM solution is a crucial business decision that provides benefits in three key areas:

• Mitigating cyber risks: PAM prevents unauthorized parties from gaining elevated access, halting lateral movement in a network during a breach, and neutralizing ransomware attacks by starving malware of the access it needs to spread. It also helps manage insider threats by limiting employee access to only what is required for their jobs.
• Achieving regulatory compliance: Many regulations, such as SOX, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, require proof of effective security measures. PAM solutions provide detailed session logs and audit trails that serve as concrete evidence for auditors.
• Improving operational efficiency: PAM solutions automate the manual, time-consuming tasks of managing privileged credentials, offering a centralized platform for password management, and streamlining the process of granting and revoking permissions.

PAM and Other Security Solutions

It’s important to understand how PAM fits into the broader cybersecurity landscape:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): This is the broadest category, managing the rights of every user in an organization. PAM and PIM (Privileged Identity Management) are more focused solutions that operate within the IAM framework.
• Privileged Identity Management (PIM): PIM focuses on the user identity itself, managing the lifecycle of privileged user accounts and their permissions.
• Privileged Access Management (PAM): PAM, on the other hand, focuses on controlling and monitoring access to critical resources and securing the connection to sensitive systems and data. You can think of PIM as securing the “who,” while PAM secures the “what” and “how.”

Key Features of PAM Software

An effective PAM solution should include:

• Secure vaulting and password management: A centralized digital safe for all privileged credentials.
• Session management and monitoring: The ability to monitor, record, and terminate suspicious sessions in real time, creating an unalterable record for investigations.
• Access control and elevation: Granular control to enforce the principle of least privilege, allowing users to request temporary, elevated permissions only when needed.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): A non-negotiable security layer that ensures accounts remain secure even if a password is stolen.

Best Practices for Implementing PAM

A successful PAM implementation requires a thoughtful strategy, including:

• Implementing least privilege access and a zero-trust model.
• Using strong authentication, with MFA on every privileged account.
• Monitoring and auditing all activities through session management features.
• Controlling the credentials lifecycle with unique, strong passwords stored in an encrypted vault.
• Educating users on the importance of these security controls.

How NordPass Can Help

NordPass can be a valuable tool for building a PAM suite, assisting organizations with their credential management challenges. With NordPass, you can:

• Securely store, share, and manage credentials in an encrypted vault using the XChaCha20 encryption algorithm.
• Manage access rights for individuals and groups.
• Set company-wide password rules and provide tools for generating and storing strong passwords.
• Strengthen authentication by requiring MFA and integrating with existing SSO providers.
• Monitor login activity in real-time with detailed audit logs.