Investing in cybersecurity is indispensable for companies of all sizes and industries, since threats such as data leaks and hacking attacks generate great financial losses.

Thus, one of the most important measures in this regard is to rely on a PAM solution, which contributes to avoiding these risks through the combination of various technologies and strategies.

However, not all vendors guarantee a good cost-benefit ratio when offering this solution. In this article, we will show you what PAM costs are and why senhasegura is your best option. To facilitate your reading, we divided our text into the following topics:

• What Is a PAM Solution?
• Why Is PAM Necessary?
• What Is PAM For?
• PAM Costs: How Much Will My Company Invest to Implement the Solution?
• Conclusion
• About senhasegura

Enjoy the reading!

What Is a PAM Solution?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) consists of a set of tools and strategies that ensure digital security as they enable the control of privileged access in IT structures.

With this solution, one can avoid damage caused by the actions of malicious attackers and mistakes by employees who compromise privileged credentials.

PAM involves a number of strategies, but its main goal is to apply the principle of least privilege, restricting the permissions of human users or machines and providing only the necessary access to perform their tasks.

Today, many experts understand PAM is one of the key solutions to promote cybersecurity and achieve an excellent Return on Investment (ROI).

Why Is PAM Necessary?

PAM is indispensable to promoting information security and avoiding the high costs generated by a data breach.

To get a sense, Kaspersky surveyed 5,500 organizations worldwide and concluded that the average loss a company has from a violation is $551,000. When we talk specifically about small and medium-sized companies, this cost is $38,000.

Moreover, 90% of the surveyed companies had to face security-related problems and, in 46% of cases, the result was the loss of confidential data.

Forrester Research also conducted a study that revealed the damage caused by a violation. Your approach shows how this impact would occur. Check it out:

• Costs with professionals for damage repairs;
• Management of the impact on the brand through the public relations service;
• Costs for notifying customers of the breach;
• Lawyers’ fees that deal with legal impacts;
• Payment of legal agreements;
• Expenses with the repair of damages caused to customers;
• Penalties and fines;
• Downtime of activities with loss of productivity; and
• Reduction in share prices.

Preventing cyber threats is an excellent way to avoid data breach losses, but what would be the amount of these risks? Most cybersecurity managers indicate that in order to have this answer, it is necessary to multiply the probability of an incident by the financial loss it can cause.

In practice, the data covered in this topic show us that PAM costs are significantly lower than the financial impact caused by invasions, provided that the appropriate vendor is chosen.

What Is PAM For?

As mentioned earlier, PAM consists of a set of technologies that allows one to control and monitor the actions of privileged users, whether human or machine.

These users can interact with critical systems, being able to delete accounts, erase or modify data, configure a firewall, and install and uninstall software.

Through PAM, one can prevent the misuse of privileged access, limiting permissions to what is necessary to perform tasks and avoiding financial losses caused by insider or external threats.

In practice, PAM has several capabilities, such as preventing privileged users from requiring local passwords and centrally managing access to heterogeneous systems.

In this way, one can prevent the actions of malicious attackers from succeeding and, if violations occur, they will be detected immediately, preventing hackers from remaining in a system for a long period without anyone noticing.

PAM Costs: How Much Will My Company Invest to Implement the Solution?

With the increase in the number of cyberattacks, it is essential to invest in digital security measures, such as PAM. However, just considering the price of the solution deployment software does not guarantee the best cost-benefit for your company.

This is because this service involves additional costs that are usually hidden, and make up a sum known as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Several factors directly influence the calculation of the TCO, and the good news is that we, from senhasegura, offer our customers the best TCO on the market.

The first PAM costs you should note are related to its licensing. In this regard, the following capabilities are considered:

• Account discovery and activation;
• Integration with adjacent systems;
• Ease of deployment and scalability;
• Just-in-time methods;
• Records and reporting;
• Privileged access governance;
• Privileged credential management;
• Elevation and delegation of privileges;
• Privileged session management;
• Privileged task automation; and
• Secrets management.

Ideally, there should be a platform that encompasses all use cases. Thus, the customer does not need to acquire numerous solutions, which increases PAM costs. We, from senhasegura, offer integrated modules, which meet the needs considered by Gartner.

In addition, our solution has maximum scalability, allowing new modules to be easily added to the PAM implementation without requiring major investments in deployment and training.

When investing in a PAM solution, it is also critical to take infrastructure costs into account. Many vendors require complex, costly structures due to the need for additional virtual machines such as password vaults and web servers.

We offer PAM in virtual machine format, with these components already embedded in the solution. We also offer an advanced hardware solution, called PAM Crypto Appliance, with the following features:

• Protection against physical tampering with the device;
• Protection of the encryption key in hardware;
• Asymmetric key storage;
• Embedded HSM;
  TPM module; and
• Redundant power supply and hard drives.

PAM Crypto Appliance simplifies the solution deployment process and enables one to achieve compliance with security and performance requirements. In one of the senhasegura deployments, while one of our main competitors needs 64 servers, our solution only needs six, reducing the time and complexity of implementation and also PAM costs.

Another factor to be considered when checking PAM costs is the need to hire Professional Services to set, customize, configure, and update a PAM solution, which increases additional costs and can be avoided by opting for senhasegura.

Moreover, with senhasegura, your company spends less on support technologies, since the additional software required is already embedded in the solution.

Finally, it is necessary to calculate operating expenses to predict PAM costs, once again, taking into account the training time of the team and managers, which can be reduced with the use of our tool.

Conclusion

In this article, you saw that:

– PAM refers to a set of tools and strategies that ensure cybersecurity;
– Its main goal is to guarantee the principle of least privilege, restricting privileged access in IT structures;
– This technology allows avoiding and reducing damage caused by the action of hackers and human failures, which compromise the security of privileged credentials;
– With PAM, one can avoid major losses generated by data breaches;
– To know how much your company will spend with the implementation of this solution, you need to take into account a number of factors that directly impact PAM costs;
– We have also shown you the reasons why senhasegura is the PAM solution that has the best cost-benefit ratio for your company.

About senhasegura

We, from senhasegura, are part of the group of information security companies MT4 Tecnologia, founded in 2001. Our goal is to provide digital sovereignty to our customers through the control of privileged actions and data.

Our work includes:

– Optimizing the performance of companies, avoiding interruption of operations;
– Performing automatic audits on the use of permissions;
– Auditing privileged changes to detect abuse of privilege automatically;
– Providing advanced solutions with the PAM Security Platform;
– Reducing cyber threats; and
– Bringing the organizations that hire us into compliance with audit requirements and standards such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.

Do you want to ensure your company’s digital security with our PAM solution? Contact us.

The implementation of the Zero Trust-based security model has gained space in recent times, promoting the default approach of never trusting, and always checking before granting access to a company’s perimeter.

This practice is extremely important to ensure cybersecurity, especially in the context of remote work, with employees having access to the resources of the company from any environment and device.

Therefore, we prepared this article exploring the concept of Zero Trust and explaining its relationship with PAMtools. To facilitate your reading, we divided our text into topics. They are as follows:

1. What Is the Concept of Zero Trust?
2. What Are the Top Three Aspects of Zero Trust?
3. What Is Its Importance?
4. What Are the Advantages of this Approach?
5. How to Implement this Security Model?
6. Evolution of Zero Trust
7. About PAM
8. Zero Trust and PAM: How to Apply the Concept of Zero Trust in Privileged Access Management?
9. About senhasegura
10. Conclusion

Enjoy the reading!

What Is the Concept of Zero Trust?

Never trust, always check. This is the motto used in the Zero Trust cybersecurity model. According to this concept, it is recommended to grant minimum privileged access, after verifying who the requester is, what is the context of the request, and the risk offered by the access environment.

In this way, one can protect work environments, such as cloud technologies, SaaS, DevOps, and robotic automation, reducing the attack surface and the costs for organizations.

In practice, the Zero Trust security model recommends all users be verified before gaining access to a particular system in order to protect it from external attacks, malware, and insider threats.

That is, they must be authenticated, authorized, and validated continuously before receiving access to applications and data and during the access.

To apply the concept of zero trust, advanced technologies are used, including IAM (Identity and Access Management), multi-factor authentication, identity protection, and endpoint security.

One also needs to promote data encryption, email protection, and verification of asset and endpoint hygiene to connect to apps. 

What Are the Top Three Aspects of Zero Trust?

The Zero Trust security model is based on three aspects, which must be considered by organizations. They are as follows:

• Policies

To ensure digital security through the Zero Trust security model, it is critical to create and implement strict security controls, ensuring access to IT environments only for certain people in specific circumstances.

• Automation

Through automation, it is possible to implement the concept of Zero Trust, avoiding human failures and correcting any deviations immediately.

• Visibility

To protect IT devices and assets, it is imperative to identify and monitor them. After all, it is impossible to protect what is not managed, and it is impossible to manage what is not known. That is, to properly protect your infrastructure, you need to know what equipment the company has or has access to.

What Is Its Importance?

Companies around the world face problems related to insider threats, generated by third parties or even by errors, accidental or not, committed by employees and former employees.

Thus, giant corporations, such as Google, started to adopt the security model based on Zero Trust, since the old model “trust, but verify”, proved to be insufficient to guarantee digital security. 

In 2015, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management experienced cyberattacks, which motivated the House of Representatives to suggest the adoption of Zero Trust by government institutions. This is because adopting the concept of zero trust ensures effective control of networks, applications, and data. 

Thus, in 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order for Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. This order considers the implementation of Zero Trust-based policies in all agencies of the American government. 

Another important reason to join the security model based on Zero Trust is the possibility of providing digital security to remote work. 

What Are the Advantages of this Approach?

As you have seen, adopting the concept of Zero Trust is essential to provide cybersecurity to organizations nowadays. Among its benefits, we can highlight:

• Superior risk mitigation by reducing the attack surface and controlling lateral movement in the network;
• Enhanced digital security and support for mobile and remote employees;
• Defense of applications and data, regardless of whether they are on-premises or in the cloud;
• Strong protection against advanced threats, such as Advanced Persistent attacks (APTs).

Finally, Zero Trust-based security allows one to segment the network by identities, groups, and roles, helping to contain cyber threats and reduce potential damage. 

How to Implement this Security Model?

The implementation of the Zero Trust-based security model requires that the accesses requested are proven to be reliable. For, it is essential to:

• Classify Data

The first step in implementing this security model in your company is to segregate and assign value to the data to be accessed, defining who can access it and how, according to its classification (secret, confidential, internal, or public) and urgency. 

• Monitor Network Environments

To detect irregularities, it is extremely important to know the traffic and how the information is shared.

• Map Risks

Another essential measure is to map the external and internal risks to which the systems are exposed. 

• Officialize the Use of the Approach

It is also essential to adapt policies, procedures, manuals, and other documents to the Zero Trust security model, making the adoption of this approach official. 

• Identify Accesses

Finally, it is absolutely essential to understand what are the types of users on the network, their roles, and the type of access they have. With this, one can authenticate them, ensuring a high level of security. 

Evolution of Zero Trust

The concept of Zero Trust emerged in 2010, as an expression coined by Forrester, which was synonymous with the micro-segmentation security approach and related to the creation of secure zones in data centers and cloud solutions used to individually protect workloads. 

This approach has become useful as traditional security mechanisms have proven inefficient in the face of technologies such as cloud computing, virtualization, and mobile devices.

Before that, companies had been building walls around their sensitive data, which used to be transmitted through physical devices or from an internet access point, protecting, monitoring, and controlling that information. 

In practice, it is possible to protect physical devices by managing systems and antivirus. However, the in-depth approach proved to be insufficient for IT services performed outside the security perimeter. 

For this reason, providers of digital security-related products and services have been adhering to the Zero Trust-based security model since 2010, including all types of cyber solutions.

More recently, Forrester published its annual report “The Forrester Wave: Zero Trust eXtended (ZTX) Ecosystem Providers, Q4 2018”, defining seven controls considered basic principles of this approach. They are as follows: 

• Network Security;
• Device Security;
• Identity Security;
• Application Security;
• Data Security;
• Security Analysis; and
• Security Automation. 

 Gartner has proposed the Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA) approach, which also brings seven principles, with zero trust being its first one. This concept is related to the balance between risk and trust, considering the confidence needed to gain access to high-value assets. 

About PAM

In general, organizations rely on sensitive data and digital assets that should not be accessed by all users at the risk of leaks generated by human failures or even the action of hackers, who capture authorized accounts to move through the network.

To avoid this type of problem, it is recommended to use Privileged Access Management (PAM), a digital security tool that makes it possible to reduce the privilege of users to the minimum necessary to perform their tasks. 

In short, PAM allows one to store and save credentials of authorized users on the network and manage their accounts, recording their activities and granting access only if they provide an explanation. 

Zero Trust and PAM: How to Apply the Concept of Zero Trust in Privileged Access Management?

Associated with the concept of Zero Trust, a PAM solution provides digital security for companies. Its job is to promote centralized access management through the control, storage, segregation, and tracking of credentials with access to the IT environment.

Thus, one can make sure the access is actually being made by a user and they are allowed to access that environment.

The main features of PAM that allow organizations to apply Zero Trust practices are:

• Credential Management

With Zero Trust and PAM, you can define administrators and user groups by stipulating their accesses and permissions and managing the full cycle of their credentials.

• Segregation of Access

This solution also allows you to isolate critical environments and detect suspicious activities, avoiding problems arising from unauthorized access.

• Approval Workflows

PAM access requests are easy to configure and make it possible to comply with multilevel approval flows and validate explanations provided by the requesters. 

• Behavior Analysis

Another feature of PAM that optimizes the Zero Trust security model is the monitoring of user actions, which allows identifying and responding to changes in their behavior patterns and access profiles. 

• Unauthorized Access

PAM also allows denying access to users who are outside the company’s policies, for example, using the password of a credential not managed by the solution. 

• Action Analysis

PAM also analyzes activities performed by users and generates alerts that allow inappropriate actions or fraud to be detected. 

• Session Blocking

Finally, whenever there is suspicious activity, the administrator can block the user session in IT environments or operating systems. 

About senhasegura

senhasegura PAM allows you to securely manage generic and privileged credentials, ensuring protected storage, access segregation, and usage traceability.

With this, PAM enables organizations to adopt Zero Trust and respect the strictest access controls to privileged credentials in an automated and centralized manner, preventing cyberattacks and leaks of sensitive information. 

Check out some benefits of senhasegura PAM for your company:

• Control of misuse of privileges;
• Securely-coded password management;
• Protection against insider threats and theft of critical data;
• Monitoring and recording of activities performed during privileged sessions;
• Automatic reset of passwords or based on an established schedule; and
• Simplified generation of audit reports from a central audit data repository.

Conclusion

In this article, you saw that:

• The Zero Trust security model recommends to never trust, always check;
• This means that, before granting privileged access, it is necessary to verify who the requester is, the context of their request, and the risks offered by the access environment;
• This measure makes it possible to protect IT environments from external attacks, malware, and insider threats;
• Advanced technologies are used to apply the concept of zero trust;
• The Zero Trust security model is based on three aspects: policies, automation, and visibility;
• Large corporations, such as Google, use this concept in their practices;
• Improved digital security for mobile and remote teams is one of the top benefits generated by the Zero Trust-based security model;
• To implement this security model, one must classify data, monitor network environments, officialize the use of the approach, and identify accesses.
• The concept of Zero Trust emerged in 2010 and has evolved until now;
• PAM is a solution that allows reducing the privilege of users to the minimum necessary to perform their tasks;
• Associated with the concept of Zero Trust, PAM ensures digital security for companies, promoting centralized access management through the control, storage, segregation, and tracking of credentials with access to the IT environment.

Do you want to learn how Zero Trust and PAM can contribute to your company’s digital security? Contact us. 

In this article, we will show you how account lifecycle management works through best practices and what are the advantages of investing in the senhasegura PAM solution. 

Our text is divided by topics. They are as follows:

1. What Is Account Lifecycle and Its Management?
2. How to Apply Account Lifecycle Management: Good Practices
3. About senhasegura
4. Conclusion

Enjoy the reading!

• What Is Account Lifecycle and Its Management?

When a company hires a new employee or service provider, they need access to essential resources to perform their job. Moreover, some operations are performed by non-human users by accessing systems, IoT devices, API keys, and SSH keys, among other technologies.

As the number of remote employees with cloud access increases and IT structures become more complex, it is indispensable to have account lifecycle management for privileged accounts.

In practice, this means establishing processes divided into creation, revision or updates, and deactivation, following each user’s schedule.

• How to Apply Account Lifecycle Management: Good Practices

When using account lifecycle management, it is essential to adopt a step-by-step approach that will provide more digital security for your company. These are:

Provisioning

The creation of new human or non-human users must respect the principle of least privilege, which grants only the necessary access for them to perform specific tasks.

This should be observed whenever the company provides privileges to new employees, vendors, and service providers.

Revision

The levels of access to confidential information must be adequate whenever it is necessary to promote changes in the privileges of human users.

Only through this one can guarantee the appropriate access of the users during the account lifecycle.

Moreover, it is essential to revoke access whenever an employee is no longer on the staff or a provider ceases to provide services.

Privilege Control

It is very common for permissions to accumulate over time, causing human users to have more access than they need to perform their tasks.

This type of situation is often exploited by hackers, who compromise accounts, increase privileges, and invade networks without being identified. Therefore, the scope of privileges must be controlled.

De-provisioning 

It is necessary to perform account de-provisioning whenever an employee leaves or is fired from the company.

In this way, the risk of unauthorized and malicious access can be reduced. It is also critical to do the same for machine identities associated with service accounts. 

About senhasegura

We, from senhasegura, are part of the MT4 Tecnologia group, created in 2001 to promote cybersecurity to our customers.

Currently, we are present in 54 countries, providing organizations with control of privileged actions and data in order to avoid the action of malicious users and data leaks. 

For this, we have the only PAM solution in the market to offer a 360-degree approach, covering the entire lifecycle of privileged access. 

Here are the main benefits of applying PAM in your company:

Elimination of Manual Tasks

Manual tasks overwhelm IT administrators and increase the chances of human error. However, with PAM, one can automate repetitive activities so that professionals focus on more important and strategic tasks, ensuring greater productivity.

Compliance With Security Requirements

The application of the principle of least privilege through PAM and the de-provisioning of users are measures that guarantee compliance of companies with security requirements, such as the HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and NIST standards.

Elimination of Operational Silos

Account lifecycle management can be quite complex when it involves managing identity silos in applications and environments. With PAM, you can end this problem in your company and ensure more efficient management of users, computers, contacts, and groups.

Integration of Functions

PAM allows you to integrate critical applications so that IT management can be done from a single tool, making it easier for IT administrators to control account lifecycle management.

Conclusion

By reading this article, you saw that:

• Account lifecycle management is related to the creation, revision or update, and deactivation of users of an IT system;
• Good practices related to account lifecycle management involve the provisioning, upgrades, privilege control, and de-provisioning of human users or machines;
• The senhasegura PAM solution provides a 360-degree approach, covering the entire lifecycle of privileged access;
• This technology brings several advantages, such as eliminating manual tasks, which allow more productivity; ensuring compliance with strict protection requirements; eliminating operational silos; and integrating functions.

Do you want to apply account lifecycle management efficiently? Contact us and invest in our PAM solution. 

The use of many credentials to access various services often causes people to opt for weak passwords or the reuse of passwords, making loopholes for the action of malicious agents. 

Moreover, the explosion in the number of connected devices due to technologies such as IoT, Big Data, and 5G generates new vulnerabilities to IT structures, making the risks even greater.

However, memorizing complex passwords can be a big challenge if you do not have a solution that allows you to gather them in the same space, such as a password vault.

In this article, we will explain the concept of password vault, its importance, benefits, and vulnerabilities, among other aspects. To facilitate your reading, we divided our text into the following topics: 

• Password Vault: What Is It?

• How Important Is a Password Vault?

• Benefits of a Password Vault

• How Does a Password Vault Work?

• Does My Company Need a Password Vault?

• Is the Solution (Deployment and Use) Complicated?

• Password Vault Vulnerabilities

• Types of Password Vaults for Companies

• Can Password Vaults Be Broken Into?

• Password Loss

• SSO x Password Vaults

• FAQ About Passwords

• Curiosities About Passwords

• Difference Between a Password Vault and PAM

• Learn More About Cybersecurity

• Cybersecurity Best Practices

• About senhasegura

• Conclusion

Follow our text to the end!

Password Vault: What Is It?

Also known as a password locker and password manager, a password vault consists of software used to keep multiple passwords secure. For this, the passwords are encrypted and stored so that a master password must be used to access them.

The use of this tool to store passwords eliminates the need to use weak and easy-to-remember passwords, providing more security for users. 

How Important Is a Password Vault?

At some point, you must have forgotten a password and resorted to a reminder. According to a study on the subject commissioned by NordPass, this happens because, in general, people need to memorize about 100 passwords to access websites and services. 

Also, according to this research, the number of passwords each person uses had an increase related to the Covid-19 pandemic, since many sought new forms of entertainment and online services.

To be more precise, this number has increased 25% between 2019 and 2020, while each person had to deal with an average number of 70 to 80 passwords before that. 

Therefore, a password manager works as an efficient solution to control all the passwords we use in our daily lives.

Through this tool, one can avoid the use of weak passwords or reuse of passwords, which are very common practices due to the ease of memorization and are extremely risky, especially for organizations, since privileged access — the target of many cybercriminals — allows hacking into corporate networks and accessing many resources.

With a password vault, it becomes easier to manage complex passwords, which are unlikely to be discovered or deciphered. That is, the password vault is a fundamental tool to provide security to companies.

Benefits of a Password Vault

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, 53% of people try to memorize passwords. This same research indicates that 51% of the population uses the same passwords in personal and professional accounts, further compromising digital security.

In addition, Digital Guardian reveals that, unlike what can be imagined, younger people are not the most informed when it comes to technology: 76% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 tend to reuse a password.

Another study, this time by Avast, shows that 46% of participants would be “very worried” about the vulnerability of their passwords in the face of cyberattacks, against 44% who would remain “a little worried”.

In this sense, it is extremely important to educate users about the importance of keeping their passwords secure, and the only method that allows them to remember dozens is through a manager.

This tool is useful for gathering passwords in a single place, where they are filled automatically, without having to memorize them.

Password vaults are also able to create trustworthy passwords and alert the user if any cybercriminals take action and compromise credentials, even before this causes any damage.

And best of all, this investment has an excellent cost-benefit ratio, since its price is quite affordable.

Check out the main advantages of a password vault below:

Password Vaults Can Generate Secure Passwords

In addition to storing a large number of passwords, many of these managers have the capability of generating complex passwords, which can be used to provide security to organizations.

No Need to Store Passwords

This capability eliminates the need to store multiple passwords, as all of them are stored in the vault. Just remember a single strong password to access them.

Random Passwords

Another advantage of a password manager is to randomly generate passwords, which helps to protect credentials against abuse and violations.

Password Change

When a password is compromised, it needs to be reset. With the password vault, this process is easy.

Multi-factor Authentication

Some password vaults use Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) to log in. Thus, if the user forgets a password, they will be able to access the vault through other procedures, such as biometrics.

Phishing Attempt Alerts

There are also password vaults that alert about phishing attempts. In this way, people can avoid downloading fake email attachments or clicking on malicious links.

Password Synchronization

Some password vaults are capable of synchronizing credentials across different devices and operating systems. This feature makes it easy to log in.

Monitoring of Access to Sensitive Data

The use of password vaults in an organization allows tracking access to sensitive data, providing more security for shared information.

It Benefits Business Processes

In addition to the issue of security itself, a password vault benefits business processes in general due to its efficiency and accuracy.

How Does a Password Vault Work?

As you have seen, a password vault is a tool that makes it possible to manage, track, and share the passwords of a particular organization. 

In this system, accesses and passwords are mapped and employees are divided into groups capable of requesting access, which will be authorized or limited individually, based on the criteria defined by the company’s security policy.

Moreover, whenever access is authorized, it is monitored by the professionals responsible for information security, who can know exactly what password was created and accessed, by whom, when, and where.

In cases of emergency, it is also possible to create a temporary password with due explanation to superiors, whose use will be monitored at all times. Managers can then gain access to the password usage reports.

There are three types of password vaults: those that store passwords in the cloud, those that save them locally, and those that are in browsers. 

In the first case, passwords can be accessed from multiple devices, which requires caution and the use of secure devices and browsers. The second type refers to passwords saved on a computer, so it is less useful in the case of remote work. Browser-based password vaults are easy to use, you just need to answer the question that appears on the screen: if you want the browser to save your password.

In general, password vaults increase a company’s cybersecurity, and many of these managers record all actions performed with details that include access times, interactions with the system, and equipment used.

However, since most employees need permission to access systems and get their work done, it is recommended to take measures to minimize vulnerabilities and keep accounts secure. 

One of the recommended measures is the use of long and strong passwords, without reference to personal data, for all logins.

Does My Company Need a Password Vault?

Every day, we need to use dozens of passwords to access the most diverse tools. The big problem is that it is often impossible to memorize them, which makes many people reuse passwords or use weak passwords.

Now, imagine this situation in a corporate context: a large number of people reusing passwords or using passwords that are easy to crack, with access to all kinds of data and without any internal control. 

This can bring a great vulnerability in terms of information security, as they increase insider and external threats, as well as the risk of data theft and leaks.

Therefore, if you own a company and care about ensuring business continuity, we strongly recommend investing in a password vault. This feature makes it possible to implement internal controls and monitoring and automate processes, avoiding several risks.

Is the Solution (Deployment and Use) Complicated?

If you have never taken any security measures related to password and access control, a password manager may seem like a complex solution.

So, to make it easier, it can be a good strategy to start your deployment into a single department. In this way, it is possible to reproduce the process in an automated way in other sectors.

Thus, you will notice a password vault increases data security while saving time and financial resources.

Password Vault Vulnerabilities

A password vault presents two major vulnerabilities. The first is that, by centralizing all passwords in a single location, if the master password is compromised, the stored credentials will also be.

The second major vulnerability of a password manager is that it is a malware-vulnerable program. In practice, this means that if the master password is used on a computer infected by malware, the stored passwords may be compromised.

Types of Password Vaults for Companies

In a corporate password vault, security controls are integrated and used to prevent malicious agents from promoting cyberattacks by using the organization’s passwords.

For this, password access must obey the principle of least privilege, that is, employees must have access only to the passwords they need to perform their work.

Password managers use standards such as AES-265 to encrypt passwords. Moreover, they feature random password generators, enable automatic password reset, and allow the adoption of password-related security policies.

There are two types of password vaults. They are as follows:

Desktop-based

Desktop-based password managers allow you to store passwords on a device. The problem is that if this device is lost, all passwords stored on it will be too. 

Cloud-based

Cloud-based password vaults use this technology to store passwords. Thanks to this, they are saved and can be accessed from any device.

Can Password Vaults Be Broken Into?

A password manager is a secure means of storing credentials, but it is not a strategy immune to brute force attacks, keyloggers, and phishing, among others.

Also, as already mentioned in this text, the loss of the master password can lead to the compromise of passwords stored in the software.

What’s more: on a malware-affected device, a password vault can be easily hacked (and password managers that do not apply the multi-factor authentication become more vulnerable to the action of malicious agents). 

Password Loss

Depending on the type of password vault, it is possible to access it even if the user loses the master password, but depending on the chosen type, it may be necessary to have a backup, delete the vault, create a new vault, and protect it again.

Some password vaults allow access through an OTP and email account. Then, one needs to reset the master password. If this is not possible, one must delete the vault with all passwords included, and create a new one.

SSO x Password Vaults

A more secure solution than password vaults is Single Sign-on (SSO), which allows logging into multiple accounts through a set of credentials only once, allowing access to multiple systems.

Typically, SSO integrates an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution and provides security to companies by adopting protocols such as SAML or OAuth and technologies such as a digital certificate. 

SSO offers more security than password managers, as it decreases the number of logins and stored passwords and these passwords are not shared.

In practice, after logging in, SSO transfers tokens to the app and requests authentication. With this, it is possible to reduce the attack surface and cyber threats. 

Besides being more secure, SSO is easier to use than password managers and eliminates the need to store many passwords. 

FAQ About Passwords

Here are the frequently asked questions when it comes to the use of passwords:

What Makes a Password Good?

For a password to be trusted, firstly, it must be original. People are most likely to reuse the same passwords across all of their accounts, but this poses a huge risk, because if one credential is compromised, they all will be.

Moreover, opting for similar passwords does not solve the problem, as well as obvious and easy-to-decipher passwords, such as the 123456 sequence and other similar patterns. 

Another important recommendation is not to use personal information in a password, such as date of birth, name, and pet’s name.

Finally, a strong password should gather uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. 

How Many Passwords Should I Have?

As you have seen, using the same password across all accounts is a risky practice. Therefore, the ideal is to have a password for each situation, which makes it essential to use a password vault to memorize each one of them.

After all, if you use the same password on more than one account and fall victim to malicious attackers, the inconvenience and losses tend to be much greater. 

What Is the Ideal Size for a Password?

We strongly recommend replacing short passwords, from six to eight characters, with longer ones, with 12 or more characters. For this, you can use an entire sentence.

How Many Times Should I Change My Password?

Most people do not often create new passwords: according to Digital Guardian, only 31.3% of Internet users will create new passwords “once or twice a year.”

Nevertheless, the longer a password is u

What Are the Alternatives to Passwords?

Many Internet services use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to provide more security to users. In addition, smartphones allow you to use features such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning.

Curiosities About Passwords

Passwords are an extremely important asset for an organization, and as such, they must be protected. This is because inappropriate passwords increase the risk of data leaks and cyberattacks.

To give you a better idea of how these threats present themselves, we prepared a list with 9 curiosities about passwords. Check it out:

• According to Microsoft, 99.9% of the risks associated with passwords could be avoided with the use of multi-factor authentication;
• Credentials were the main type of data stolen in 2020 worldwide;
• About 60% of violations are related to the inappropriate use of credentials;
• In a study taken in 2020, more than 40% of respondents said their company was compromised due to passwords;
• More than 40% of companies use sticky notes to remember passwords;
• 82% of professionals confessed they reuse passwords and credentials;
• It is believed that 60% of passwords related to more than one violation have been reused;
• In 2020, about 25% of violations were related to the filling of credentials;
• About 75% of workers reuse corporate passwords for their personal accounts.

Given these numbers, it is evident professionals have prioritized the ease of memorization to the detriment of digital security, giving rise to weak passwords.

To get a sense, according to Forbes, 59% of Americans use the name or date of birth of a family member in their passwords, 33% choose a pet’s name, and 22% include their own name, repeating a weak password approximately 14 times. 

However, you have already been introduced to the risks these behaviors pose. Follow our recommendation to avoid them and implement a password manager to protect your business as soon as possible.

Difference Between a Password Vault and PAM

A password vault is a software installed on a computer, tablet, or smartphone that allows storing all passwords securely, without the need to remember all of them.

Some types of password vaults can synchronize passwords on different devices, making it easy to log on, which can be done from any environment. Another capability of password managers is to create unique and random passwords, which provide great security for users. 

Privileged Access Management (PAM) consists of several information security technologies and strategies, which provide control not only over credential passwords, but also over privileged access in a digital environment. 

PAM allows one to prevent and reduce damage from hacker attacks and insider threats against privileged credentials using the concept of least privilege, which restricts permissions and access rights to the minimum necessary for the user to perform their tasks.

PAM solutions are used to manage passwords for:

• Operating systems;
• Equipment;
• Network or endpoint servers;
• Databases;
• Internal apps;
• Social networks; and
• Internal application passwords, among others.

Learn More About Cybersecurity

One of the major risks associated with cybersecurity refers to the inability to identify a compromised privileged account. This is what a new report on the subject points out.

This shows it is necessary to adopt strategic measures in order to ensure the protection of privileged services and identities.

Moreover, the Vectra 2020 RSA Conference Edition of the Attacker Behavior Industry and Spotlight on Privilege Access Analytics reports provide important information on the topic of digital security. Check it out below:

• The most commonly observed privileged access anomaly behavior is access to  unknown hosts, with 74% of all detections;
• In the first half of 2019, 282 malicious agent behaviors were detected per 10,000 hosts. In the second half of the same year, this number fell to 225;
• It is not common to see a large amount of TOR traffic in companies, as few people use it legitimately. In the industries assessed, TOR had an average of three detections per 10,000 hosts;
• Financial and insurance organizations had the highest rate of recognition behaviors, with 32 out of every 10,000 hosts. On the other hand, government agencies had the lowest rate, with 93 out of every 10,000 hosts;
• 47% of all insider access anomaly behavior detections targeted financial, insurance, and education organizations;
• With 138 and 102 detections per 10,000, technology and education organizations, respectively, are the segments that most receive command and control behaviors, reaching approximately three times more than the other areas;
• Small companies were more vulnerable to lateral movement attacks than medium and large-sized organizations, with 112 out of every 10,000 hosts.

Cybersecurity Best Practices

If the goal is to ensure the digital security of your company, it is extremely important to work on several fronts, ranging from investment in technology to the training of its employees. The following is what should be taken into account:

Enforce a Strong Password Policy

The use of weak and easy-to-decipher passwords is one of the aspects that most affect an organization’s cybersecurity. Therefore, it is essential to ensure your employees adopt strong passwords with secure use, storage, and sharing.

Use a Password Vault

Strong passwords tend to be more difficult to remember, especially as your employees won’t have to deal with a single password, but with multiple, which should not be repeated.

The good news – as we have seen throughout this article – is that the password vault allows one to store and manage all the passwords a person uses. For this, it only needs to memorize a single master password.

Another advantage of the password manager is that it allows the creation of random and unique passwords, which do not need to be memorized.

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

Another very efficient mechanism when it comes to digital security is multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires each user to prove their identity in two different ways to access a given service.

This technology prevents the action of malicious attackers even if they gain access to the credentials.

Employee Training

There is no point in investing in cutting-edge technology if your employees are not trained to deal with cyber threats. 

In this sense, it is important to make your team aware of the risks related to hacking, phishing, and how to work securely from home.

Secure Email Gateway (SEG)

To protect your employees from phishing, it is also critical to invest in a secure email gateway (SEG), which monitors emails for threats and signals compromised accounts. 

Endpoint Solutions

Another important measure to ensure the security of your company is to install endpoint solutions on your employees’ devices.

This technology combines firewalls, anti-malware tools, and device management, protecting your IT network.

PAM

Controlling privileged users’ access and activities through a PAM tool is of utmost importance to keeping privileged accounts secure.

In this way, one can ensure that only the correct users access these accounts, for the time necessary to perform their functions.

This is especially important if we consider that privileged accounts are among the main targets of malicious attackers.

About senhasegura

senhasegura is part of the MT4 Tecnologia group, created in 2001, with a commitment to promote cybersecurity to its customers. 

Currently, the company is present in 54 countries, providing its customers with control of privileged actions and data in order to avoid the action of malicious users and data leaks. The following stand out among its goals:

• To provide more efficiency and productivity to companies, avoiding interruptions due to expiration;
• To perform automatic audits on the use of privileges;
• To perform automatic audits of privileged changes to detect abuse;
• To perform successful deployments;
• To provide advanced PAM capabilities;
• To reduce risks;
• To bring companies into compliance with audit criteria and standards such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.

The senhasegura’s password vault is a solution that stores credentials such as passwords, SSH keys, and digital certificates by using means such as encryption and offering users the possibility of accessing multiple credentials with a single password.

Through it, one can access network resources using SSH and RDP protocols, in addition to recording the use for audits and compliance assessments. This technology makes it possible to analyze the actions of users in real time and generates alerts when detecting improper actions.

Its implementation reduces costs and risks, as well as facilitates the adoption of password usage policies and credential management.

PAM, in turn, allows controlling privileged access, preventing and mitigating problems arising from insider and external threats.

This solution encompasses several strategies, but its main capability is the application of the concept of least privilege, which allows users to have only the necessary access to perform their tasks. 

Conclusion

By reading this article, you saw that:

• A password vault is a software program used to securely store multiple passwords;
• Passwords are stored so that just a single master password is used to access them;
• Many people use weak passwords or reuse passwords due to the ease of memorization. With a password manager, this is not necessary;
• Investing in a password vault provides several advantages, such as: the generation of secure passwords, no need to memorize them, generation of random passwords, easy change process, and the use of multi-factor authentication;
• Password vaults have two major vulnerabilities: one is the fact that all passwords are centralized in a single location, and the other one is because it is a program vulnerable to malware;
• There are two types of password vaults: cloud-based and desktop-based;
• Password vaults can be hacked;
• In some cases, the loss of the master password requires the creation of a new password vault;
• SSO offers more security than password vaults;
• Privileged Access Management consists of several information security technologies and strategies.

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