We cannot deny that using a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution considerably increases a corporation’s information security. However, what many people do not know is that this type of solution has some basic functions so that a PAM solution can effectively guarantee information security. Let’s see more about that in today’s article.

PAM Solution: How Does it Apply to Privileged Data Security?

With the proliferation of the new coronavirus, certain areas were forced to create ways to continue operating, and for this, they ended up opting for home office services, but many companies found themselves lost with this new scenario.

Hackers take advantage of the lack of protection in accessing and transferring corporate data through home networks that fail to defend their devices and networks, carrying out attacks via phishing, ransomware, and other malware.

The PAM solution is one of the main ways to guarantee the protection of a company’s confidential information and that all activities are tracked and audited.

Privileged credentials are the targets of choice for cyberattackers. It is fundamental that your privileged access management solution has the privileged session recording feature in order to record, in video and text, the actions performed by the user within the system while using a privileged credential.

To ensure a quality privileged session recording, it is important to check with the PAM solution provider if the system provides the option of storing recording files and audit logs to prevent users from messing with their activity history and altering their entire tool. In this case, senhasegura is the right solution to help you.

It makes sense that privileged accounts are the most vulnerable, as once compromised, they can grant unrestricted access to your company’s IT infrastructure. This is why many high-profile breaches have resulted from exploiting unmanaged and unmonitored privileged accounts. Responsible attackers often gain administrative control and can do considerable damage in their wake.

Credential Management

To ensure information security, you need to develop prevention practices regularly, such as managing your company’s privileged accounts.

A solution that does not provide this function leaves the security of your information with many loopholes, which makes a cyberattack possible.

With this capability, your company is able to manage all active privileged credentials and confirm the privilege level of each one, verifying it is appropriate for such users to have access to certain environments, in addition to being able to revoke credentials that are no longer required, such as from former employees.

To avoid the risk of information being leaked, besides verifying access to privileged credentials, it is also important to properly manage it through the automatic change of passwords.

In this way, you can prevent users from having passwords or performing unauthorized access.

Backup and Strong Passwords

This practice is very simple and fundamental. Through a PAM solution, one can implement effective credential management and make associated passwords available to users, however, it is necessary to have some kind of guarantee that all privileged credentials have strong passwords, difficult to be broken with the use of malicious software.

The ideal is to guide the user to create a complex password that mixes upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters, with at least 8 characters.

The most important part of a PAM solution is to have the capability of automatic backups. Even with security locks, the backup appears as one of the last options for data protection, which guarantees that even with leaked and/or deleted information, the company has access to all elements protected by the privileged access management solution.

An important tip: The main solutions on the market require two-factor authentication from the user, usually through an OTP (One-Time Password). It is also possible to send an SMS or an email with a confirmation code for someone to be able to use the privileged credential.

This type of capability makes it difficult for unauthorized people to use the privileged user’s credentials. 

The use of multifactor authentication (MFA) comes as a tool to prevent attacks from cybercriminals seeking to get hold of important information, such as credentials and passwords, and invade the corporate network.

MFA brings greater security to user data, through additional authentication, as well as, of course, the already known password.

Emergency Access

If any kind of security incident occurs that puts your company at risk, it is necessary to rely on one last capability of the security system, something like “glass breaking”. In the event of any type of failure or even a cyberattack, the person responsible for data security has the autonomy to remove privileged credentials through a dedicated backup file.

Finally, the access report is essential so that the person in charge has a broad view of the actions carried out through the privileged sessions, in order to allow the identification of security gaps and possible points for improvement.

Did you like our article and would like to have more details? senhasegura strives to ensure the sovereignty of companies’ actions and privileged information. To do so, we work against data theft and through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases, and a multitude of devices through a PAM solution.

Do not hesitate to contact us, we are at your disposal!