Top Nine Benefits of Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Many organizations have yet to invest in a PAM solution because they can be expensive and complex. While this is true for some legacy PAM solutions, these organizations fail to consider the benefits that modern PAM solutions provide. Some benefits of investing in a modern privileged access management solution for your organization include gaining complete visibility into your entire network, preventing privilege abuse, simplifying regulatory compliance, enhancing employee productivity and minimizing configuration errors. 

Continue reading to learn more about the benefits of privileged access management and what to look for in a PAM solution, so your organization can get the most out of it. 

1. Provides complete visibility into your entire network

Without privileged access management, your IT admins have no visibility into your organization’s network and data environments. This often means users are given excessive privileges which increases your organization’s attack surface, making it more difficult to determine if and when an unauthorized user has gained access to internal systems. Since PAM solutions enable IT admins to monitor and record privileged accounts and sessions, they can immediately determine if something is out of the ordinary and take action against the threat or prevent it altogether. 

2. Prevents privilege abuse and misuse

Privilege abuse refers to a user who abuses their access privileges within an organization for malicious reasons. When there is no PAM solution implemented in an organization, there is no way to monitor and record privileged sessions which increases the likelihood of privilege abuse. Most PAM solutions come with a feature known as Privileged Session Management (PSM) that monitors, records and controls privileged sessions to ensure users aren’t abusing or misusing their privileges. 

3. Simplifies regulatory compliance

Regulatory and compliance frameworks such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FDDC, FISMA and SOX require that organizations follow the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) when assigning user permissions. Additionally, some compliance frameworks require that organizations implement management and auditing capabilities for privileged user accounts. Since PAM solutions help organizations enforce least privilege access and manage and monitor access to privileged accounts, they can aid organizations with simplifying compliance. 

4. Enhances employee productivity

A PAM solution can also enhance employee productivity by enabling IT admins to delegate access from a centralized dashboard rather than having them manually configure access to systems or accounts. This not only saves admins’ time but also end users, enhancing overall employee productivity. Many PAM solutions come with password management which aids with password creation, management and storage, helping employees have a more seamless login experience.

Additionally, some PAM systems include remote connection management, enabling employees to securely perform tasks remotely that they would otherwise have to go into the office for. These features that are included with PAM help enhance productivity in various aspects of your organization. 

5. Minimizes configuration errors

Most organizations give users excessive access privileges that go beyond what they need to do their jobs, which is a major security risk. A PAM solution can help organizations minimize configuration errors by streamlining the access management process and ensure that the principle of least privilege is followed.

6. Reduces your organization’s attack surface

Your organization’s attack surface refers to all the possible points where cybercriminals can gain access to a system and steal data. Your goal should be to reduce your organization’s attack surface as much as possible to avoid falling victim to a cyber attack. Implementing a PAM solution can help reduce your organization’s attack surface by ensuring users are only given the minimum amount of privileges, making it more difficult for cybercriminals to move laterally throughout your organization if a breach were to occur. 

Since PAM solutions also include password management, they can reduce your organization’s attack surface significantly by strengthening its overall password security.

7. Eases containment of breaches

If a breach were to occur in your organization, having a PAM solution already implemented can help ease the containment of the breach. Since PAM helps enforce least privilege access, it makes it more difficult for cybercriminals to move laterally throughout your network. This means if a breach occurs it would be a lot easier to contain it since the cybercriminal wouldn’t have been able to gain access to multiple privileged accounts and systems at once. 

8. Helps satisfy cyber insurance requirements

To qualify for cyber insurance there are many security controls that organizations must have in place such as a security awareness program for employees and endpoint protection against malware. One security control that PAM would fall under is network visibility and security. PAM can help satisfy this cyber insurance requirement by enabling security, visibility and control over your most critical systems, accounts and data.

9. Reduces costs in the long run

Many legacy PAM systems aren’t implemented because they’re too expensive and complex. While some PAM solutions are costly, they can reduce costs for your organization in the long run by helping to protect your most critical systems against unauthorized access. PAM solutions can also help lower your cyber insurance premiums and entitle you to more expansive coverage. 

What to look for in a privileged access management solution

Not all privileged access management solutions are the same. Here’s what to look for in a PAM solution for your organization.

Zero-trust encryption

The PAM solution your organization invests in should be zero trust. Zero trust is a security framework that is based on three core principles: assume breach, verify explicitly and ensure least privilege. Zero trust eliminates implicit trust by requiring that every user (human or device) be continuously and explicitly validated. Your PAM solution must be zero trust to ensure cybercriminals won’t be able to compromise privileged accounts and gain access to your organization’s sensitive data and systems. 

Cloud-based infrastructure

Legacy PAM solutions were built on a static infrastructure, making it difficult and inconvenient to configure and update them with the latest security patches. To ensure productivity, provide better automation and reduce costs, the PAM solution your organization chooses should be cloud-based. With a cloud-based PAM solution, IT admins will be able to access and configure it at any time from wherever they may be.

Easy to deploy

Lastly, the PAM solution you choose should be easy to deploy. Many legacy PAM solutions take a long time to deploy, which is why organizations should lean towards investing in a modern cloud-based PAM solution that doesn’t require the purchase of additional hardware or implementation fees. 

Protect your organization with a zero-trust PAM solution

Finding the right PAM solution for your organization doesn’t have to be difficult. With Zero-Trust KeeperPAM® you can rest assured that your organization will be protected with the highest level of security. Zero-Trust KeeperPAM is a modern privileged access management solution that enables organizations to achieve complete visibility, security, control and reporting across every privileged user and on every device. 

Curious to learn more about how Zero-Trust KeeperPAM can protect your organization? Request a demo today.