In today’s digital world, monitoring privileged accounts is paramount to ensuring your business isn’t exposed to cyberattacks. Fortunately, there are many software development tracking options available to give you visibility into your organization’s most important accounts and activities.
With tools like privileged activity monitoring and privileged user monitoring, you can identify when an account has been used or accessed by someone not authorized for that access. And that information can ultimately save your company from a serious breach and/or compliance issue down the road.
Here are five key benefits of privileged account monitoring:
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5 Reasons to Always Keep an Eye on Privileged Business Accounts
1. In today’s world, where the theft of privileged credentials causes roughly 80% of security
breaches, it is critical that employees understand how those accounts can be stolen.
Implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution is one of the most important
steps organizations may take to secure their systems.
A privileged account is a type of account that has more extensive privileges than standard user
accounts. Certain users may have special account privileges within the company to execute
critical business activities like resetting user passwords, making changes to IT systems, and
accessing con dential information. Therefore, if these accounts are stolen, the rm may be
placed at a lot of risks.
Organizations may use a robust PAM solution to ensure that those who require privileged
access are provided with it while also protecting critical business systems from harmful cyber
assaults.
Article
5 Reasons to Always Keep an Eye on Privileged
Business Accounts
/ October 8, 2021 0 615
Posted By Nikita Ajmani
☰
2. This blog shares the top ve reasons to implement privileged user monitoring system into your
business-
Who are privileged users?
The essential workers/members of an organization are privileged users. Privileged users are
employees that have access to all of the organization’s critical information. These users are
often seen as more at risk of an attack than other types of employees due to the higher access
level they have, which means they would be more likely to cause damage if attacked.
Privileged users are often IT staff members like system administrators or equivalent, but not
always. For example, a tech support analyst with access to client data may be considered a
privileged user.
A study carried out by Cyber-Ark in 2015 showed that privileged users are a signi cant
vulnerability for companies as over 60% of employees interviewed admitted to sharing their
login credentials with colleagues.
An organization is at risk of losing sensitive data by not implementing proper measures such as
background checks, privileged user monitoring, and ongoing vulnerability assessments on
privileged users.
Thus, the most important thing for organizations is to have a proper authentication system in
place to maximize the security of their most important information. What are such systems
called? Privileged Access Management (PAM). It is also crucial that all privileged users are aware
3. of what they can and cannot do.
Let’s check about privileged access management in the next section-
Know about Privileged access management (PAM)
Privileged access management uses a set of security controls to limit and monitor access to
privileged accounts.
Privileged accounts are those that have administrative rights on a speci c resource and
therefore require strict protection. Some examples of systems requiring privilege management
include Unix/Linux, Windows NT/XP, MacOSX, Linux File Systems (NFS).
In general, privileged access entails working with the organization’s data autonomously and
taking speci c actions on behalf of the company. An example would be reading from a
customer’s account without needing approval from a manager.
PAM systems typically deal with six facets:
4. Authentication requests or identi cation credentials.
Authorizing events through requests for consent.
Object attribute veri cation by way of administrative privileges.
Authorization events through requests for consent.
Managing risk in performing processes and delegating privileges when
needed.
The technologies used in PAM vary depending on the size and type of organization. The larger
the company, the more complicated and diverse the technology systems will be. For example, if a
company has multiple sites, it may use a cloud-based system across its entire network.
PAM is then used to manage and govern access privileges related to privileged accounts that
cybercriminals can exploit in data breaches.
Why do businesses need privileged access management? Read the following section to know
why privileged access management is a must for any business.
———————————————————————————————————————
Also Read: Guide to Employee Monitoring Laws of the U.S.
———————————————————————————————————————
Top 5 reasons to understand the importance of
privileged access management (PAM)
1. Prevent data breaches
5. Privileged users are targeted by cybercriminals who use them to access an organization’s most
valuable information. Without adequate controls in place, privileged users can act as an entry
point for hackers. Making sure that privileged users are monitored is necessary to ensure that
privileged credentials are not misused.
Privileged access management can prevent attackers from using their access tokens against the
organization to gain unauthorized access by monitoring how those privileges are used and
restricting activities accordingly to maintain con dentiality, integrity, and availability of critical
systems.
2. Comply with regulations
Regulations such as PCI-DSS and HIPAA require organizations to monitor privileged user
accounts. Failure to do so can place the organization at risk of non-compliance nes and
penalties and loss of critical data or systems. These regulations specify the need to monitor
privileged user accounts for unusual activity, which can be done using privileged access
management solutions.
Monitoring privileges allows an organization to continuously collect data about what level of
6. access and how those users access systems and information. This information can be used to
meet the policies and procedures outlined in regulatory compliance initiatives.
3. Enable collaboration between business units
Privileged access management enables organizations to de ne speci c rights for users, groups
of users, or departments in an effective manner.
For example, your development team may need higher privileges than other teams within your
department. Using a privileged access management solution will allow you to give only your
development team members the required amount of access.
Without adequate software development tracking controls, someone without a need-to-know
may have increased access levels which could be used against the organization. Do you need any
developer tracking software?
Try a free demo of developer time tracking software now!
4. Security against privileged account attacks
7. Know who’s doing what to protect critical data and systems. Cybercriminals are constantly
targeting privileged users with malware because they know that if they gain access to a
privileged user account, they can get full system administrator access which gives them
complete control.
In fact, recent research found that 63 percent of phishing emails used credentials from other
breached accounts and that 50 percent of malware samples were being delivered via command-
and-control servers controlled by attackers.
A majority of breaches are preceded by privilege escalation. By implementing privilege
monitoring, organizations can detect suspicious activity associated with obtaining elevated
privileges. Security solutions often detect unauthorized access attempts due to anomalous
behavior.
Once identi ed, these irregularities are used to track down the source of the potential attack
and mitigate it before signi cant damage is done.
5. Reduce IT overhead
8. Most privileged access management solutions provide a central console to make management
and monitoring of privilege activity easy. This provides visibility across large organizations and
distributed environments with many databases and applications.
By implementing privileged access management that is highly automated, organizations can free
up system administrators from time-consuming tasks such as auditing, group membership
changes, etc., allowing them to focus on more important activities such as system
troubleshooting and the installation of new systems.
In addition, privileged access management offers a single control point to identify potentially
risky user behavior, which reduces the need for other tools such as SIEMs.
Which can be the ideal tool for privileged access
management (PAM)?
There are several potential tools for managing privileged access, but one excellent option is
9. WorkStatus. Why WorkStatus? WorkStatus is the perfect tool for privileged access
management. It is quick and easy with a high degree of reliability to restrict what you need for
every user and monitor and track access rights in real-time.
It provides a cloud-based solution that can be customized to t your organization’s exact
requirements. Its employee activity monitoring solutions include automation and work ow
capabilities that enable better monitoring and tracking of the evolution of administrative
privileges within an organization.
Furthermore, this suite also features a range of security features designed to protect data by
acting like a complete set of built-in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools across your entire
infrastructure, including at the device level with Data Ingress Prevention (DIPP). The platform
also features multi factor authentication as well as password strength requirements so your
data stays safe at all times.
Closing Thoughts
Managing privileged access is an essential component of a company’s overall identity
governance plan. With a strong PAM solution, organizations can be con dent that privileged
access is being provided to those who need it while preventing their systems from vulnerable
assaults that might jeopardize their business.
When PAM is integrated with your access management system, you can implement a cohesive
management approach for all personnel, regardless of role or level of access. With such
integration, users can request privileged and standard access using the same procedure, saving
time while lowering the complexity of safeguarding all user identities.
WorkStatus is a leader in providing top-notch PAM services with intelligent privileged account
monitoring and real-time tracking solutions, enabling users to manage privileged and regular
accounts effectively.
Well!! That’s it for today! If we forgot to mention anything important, please tell us in the
comment section.
10.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ques. Why is privileged access management important?
Ans. Privileged access management allows organizations to track and audit everything done on
privileged accounts quickly. It provides excellent visibility and real-time tracking, so you know
when unauthorized actions are being attempted before they have caused signi cant damages.
Ques. What is the importance of a privileged account?
Ans. A privileged account has more access than standard user accounts. Privileged accounts, for
example, might be able to install or remove software, upgrade the operating system, or modify
system and application settings.
Ques. What is privileged access monitoring?
Ans. User accounts with elevated privileges, such as domain administrators or root accounts,
are examples of privileged user accounts. Organizations can use privileged user monitoring
(PUM) to secure critical assets, satisfy regulations, and minimize external and insider risks.
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