Imagine you’re living in a big house full of people ( family), and everybody has access to almost every room of it. But, then, there is one safe room containing all your important documents and extremely precious assets. 

Would you be comfortable sharing its access with all? Or would you prefer to keep it safe, closed, and accessible only to you?

Chances are, you’ll prefer to keep it safe and accessible only to yourself. This is the same way organizations think of their data assets.

Data assets are internal information, confidential documents, customer records, financial accounts, and other critical resources that a company prefers not to share with everyone in the organization. To protect such assets from unauthorized access or breaches, organizations practice privileged access management (PAM). 

In this blog, we are going to discuss why PAM is so important in organizations and how it helps them protect their assets from malicious actors. We’ll also discuss the different ways in which PAM can help manage privileged accounts and secure access, as well as what makes a good PAM system.

So, let’s get started.

What Do You Mean By Privileged Access?

What is privileged access

Privileged access is a term used to describe the level of access granted to certain privileged users within an organization. Privileged users are those who have been granted permission to use the highest levels of system resources, such as databases, security systems, and networks. 

With this type of access, these users can make changes that would otherwise be restricted or unavailable for regular user accounts. Examples of privileged access include administrative rights, root permissions, server control, and any other elevated privileges that could potentially lead to data corruption or misuse if abused. 

It is important for organizations to properly manage their privileged accounts in order to ensure their systems remain secure from unauthorized use or malicious activity.

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How Do Privileged Access Monitoring Work?

Privileged access monitoring works by tracking and recording all privileged user activity. This includes activities

  • Login Attempts, 
  • User Actions, 
  • System Changes Made By Privileged Users 
  • The Files Accessed

The data is collected in real-time and stored for review or audit later on. The monitoring solutions typically employ rules-based algorithms to identify suspicious activity or potential security threats that require further investigation or action.

Administrators can also use these systems to create policies that will allow them to set privilege levels for certain users, so they have appropriate access rights only when necessary. 

Privileged access monitoring can provide organizations with a way to protect their sensitive information from unauthorized access while still giving authorized personnel the ability to perform their job duties efficiently without having full administrative privileges over the entire network.

A Privileged Access Monitoring System Offers–

  • Lists all the privileged accounts and information to monitor access associated with it. 
  • Creating multi-factor authentication to access privileged accounts. 
  • Only allowing users to access the accounts with proper utilization. 
  • Creating on-demand passwords and provisions for resetting, updating, and changing them automatically. 
  • Monitoring and managing unauthorized access.  

Why Is Privileged Access Management Important?

Privileged accounts are always on the radar of cybercriminals because they hold the most valuable information that is required. Here is why a PAM solution is mandatory for you:

1) Multi-Layered Security Of Passwords 

When you save your credentials under multi-layered authentication security, it verifies credentials with more than 2 personal validations. The techniques included are E-mail OTP, Call or SMS OTP, biometrics, and more to add an extra layer of security to the access and make it completely impossible for any hacker to decode it. 

2) Faster Response To Potential Threats

Security for privileged accounts is quite stringent with PAM software. It immediately detects and responds to any unnecessary suspicious activity and blocks them from accessing any confidential information. Even if there is a data breach, the software automatically freezes all access to the credentials so that hackers are unable to gain unauthorized access.

3) Easy Monitoring Of Accessfremote

When you only give access to fewer identified individuals, it becomes easy to track, monitor, and control their access. The software not only checks all the activities of users but also records all the events of login and other sessions for future reference. This way, it eliminates the chances of any security breach as you are aware of all the activities related to your database.

4) Insights On Usage

With a PAM solution, you can track who is accessing the account, the number of times password changes or updates, IPs or devices that access, and more. It can generate a detailed report and give you an insight into the usage of your system, helping you to identify any potential security threats and take preventive measures accordingly.

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Best Practices To Manage Privileged Access

A decision to opt for a privileged access management tool means the first step to inculcating the best security within your organization. However, the most important part starts after this when you work on efficiently deploying and managing it. 

Here are some best practices that you can follow while implementing a PAM solution:

1) Plan & Induce A Feasible PAM Policy  

Design a feasible process and plan to implement the PAM policy in your organization. You can include processes of identifying accesses, provisions, approval/dismissal processes, and other requests amongst this.

You should customize the process as per the need of your organization to make it more effective and secure for the users.

2) Centralize The Repository Of All Privileged Accounts

Keeping all privileged accounts in one repository is a prerequisite in any organization. It makes governing easy. In this process, all the privileged accounts will be centrally stored and can be accessed when required. All activities related to those accounts should also be monitored extensively for better security.

3) Monitor PAs Daily

Though PAs are secured under multiple locks, they should still be monitored regularly for constant monitoring and edits. This gives you a clear knowledge of access and suspicion in activities. 

In this age of extreme cybercrimes, there is an immense need to stay updated and vigilant in keeping your organization safe. PAM solution is the right way to keep it all safe under one roof. However, having the right  PAM solution can be a bit tricky and needs to be chosen wisely so that it can provide you with all the desired features, and one such solution is Workstatus.

Workstatus provides various features like Network authentication, user analytics, reporting system, staff management, tracking, monitoring, detailed reports, and BI in a single product which can help you to keep up with your PAM solutions without any hassle. 

A glimpse of the features that come with Workstatus are:

  • Time tracking
  • Screenshots monitoring
  • Employee monitoring
  • GPS tracking
  • Geofencing
  • Restrictions & selective access to accounts 
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So, if you are looking for a reliable and secure PAM solution for your organization, Workstatus is the best choice for you. It provides all the features to keep up with your security needs without compromising your team’s productivity.

Conclusion 

Privileged Access Management is an essential security technology for organizations of all sizes. It provides a secure platform for privileged users to access the most sensitive information while also protecting against malicious actors and data breaches.

By following best practices and incorporating a reliable system such as Workstatus, organizations can ensure they are properly managing their privileged accounts and protecting their networks from unauthorized access or malicious activity.

So what are you waiting for?

Get Workstatus today and secure your data with complete security!

We hope this blog has helped you understand the importance of PAM and how to best manage your privileged accounts.

Thanks for reading !!

 

Revolutionize Your Team's Productivity Today!

Unlock Your Team's Full Potential.

 

FAQS

1.What is the purpose of privileged access management?

Privileged access management (PAM) is a security concept that helps organizations control and monitor privileged user accounts and their activities. It provides administrators with the tools they need to ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive areas of the network, such as system files, databases, or applications. 

PAM also allows administrators to set up policies for each privileged account so they can limit what those users are allowed to do on the system, helping protect against malicious activity. 

 2.What are the benefits of privileged access management?

Privileged access management provides organizations with a number of key benefits, including improved security, enhanced visibility and control, reduced risk of malicious activity, increased compliance and audibility, and decreased IT costs.

By limiting which users have access to sensitive areas in your network or applications, you can significantly reduce the chances of unauthorized activities being conducted on those systems, which helps to minimize the risk of data loss and malicious activity and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.

 

 

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