Organizations are prioritizing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) strategy to prevent cybercriminals from accessing privileged accounts and conducting malicious activities. A key component of this strategy
When organizations adopt remote work, they face increased cybersecurity risks. Privileged Access Management (PAM) helps mitigate these risks by reducing the attack surface, minimizing insider threats, and providing enhanced visibility and monitoring capabilities.
Continue reading to learn the cybersecurity risks unique to remote work environments and how PAM helps address them.
Cybersecurity risks present in remote work environments
Here are some of the cybersecurity risks often present in remote work environments.
Expanded attack surface
Remote work significantly increases the potential entry points for cybercriminals. Employees often access company systems from home or other remote locations using personal devices or less secure networks, which can expose an organization to cyber attacks. Remote devices and networks may lack the strict security measures found in workplace settings, making it easier for cybercriminals to discover and exploit vulnerabilities.
Insider threats
While remote work environments offer flexibility, they can also create opportunities for insider threats, whether malicious or accidental. For example, employees might bypass security protocols, forget to log out of systems or mishandle sensitive data. Even well-meaning employees can accidentally expose organizational information by sending files to the wrong recipient. These seemingly small mistakes can lead to data breaches or other security incidents.
Phishing and social engineering attacks
Remote workers are especially vulnerable to phishing and social engineering attacks. These attacks rely on manipulating employees into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that put organizations at risk. Cybercriminals may impersonate colleagues, use email spoofing or send urgent messages to trick remote employees into clicking malicious links or disclosing their login credentials.
Inconsistent security policies
Remote work often leads to inconsistent security practices, as more employees may use personal devices and unsecured networks. One major concern is shadow data, which is data stored outside of official systems. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, 35% of breaches involved shadow data. IBM’s report also found that these breaches tend to be 16% more expensive to resolve. Additionally, when data is spread across multiple environments, such as personal devices or various cloud platforms, it accounts for 40% of breaches – highlighting the need for stronger, more consistent security policies.
Lack of visibility and monitoring
Remote work makes it challenging to maintain full visibility into employee activities, creating opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit security gaps. Without real-time monitoring, organizations may miss signs of suspicious behavior or unauthorized access to privileged systems. This is particularly dangerous because it allows cybercriminals to move laterally through an organization’s network. Without proper monitoring in place, attacks can go undetected for longer periods, increasing the overall impact of a breach.
How PAM helps reduce remote work cybersecurity risks
To mitigate the cybersecurity risks associated with remote work, organizations should implement privileged access management. Here’s how PAM helps reduce remote work cybersecurity risks.
Reduces your organization’s attack surface
PAM minimizes an organization’s attack surface by ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to critical systems and sensitive data. PAM uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to grant access based on roles within the organization. Additionally, Just-in-Time (JIT) access ensures users are granted access to privileged accounts only for the time necessary to complete specific tasks, reducing the window of exposure.
Mitigates insider threats
PAM helps mitigate both intentional and accidental insider threats by controlling and monitoring access to sensitive resources. It enforces strict controls over who can access privileged systems while enabling continuous monitoring. With features like session monitoring and recording, PAM allows organizations to track privileged user sessions in real time and provides an audit trail of actions taken. If suspicious behavior is detected, real-time alerts notify security teams for quick intervention.
Protects against phishing and credential theft
PAM protects against phishing and credential theft by securely storing and managing both user and privileged credentials. With granular access controls, only those who need access to sensitive resources can obtain it, limiting the risk of misuse. Privileged credentials are automatically rotated on a predetermined schedule or on demand, reducing the chances of exploitation if compromised. Credential sharing is also tightly controlled to ensure that access to sensitive resources is never granted without oversight.
Enforces consistent security policies
With PAM, IT administrators can centrally manage and apply security policies, ensuring uniform access controls for all privileged accounts. Centralized policy enforcement regulates access to sensitive resources under the same set of rules, reducing the risk of security gaps caused by inconsistent practices.
Provides enhanced visibility and monitoring
PAM provides real-time monitoring and detailed logs of all privileged user activities, giving organizations the visibility needed to detect unauthorized access or potential breaches. Through continuous session monitoring, every action performed by privileged users is tracked, creating an audit trail to help identify suspicious behavior. PAM’s alert systems also notify security teams of anomalies, such as unauthorized access attempts or unusual activity, enabling a quick response to potential security threats.
Additional benefits of PAM beyond risk mitigation
While PAM can help reduce cybersecurity risks in remote work environments, it also provides organizations with additional benefits, including the following:
Increases productivity and efficiency
PAM helps increase productivity by streamlining access to critical systems and reducing time spent on manual security tasks. By integrating with Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions, PAM simplifies authentication by enabling employees to securely access applications with a single set of credentials. Additionally, role-based access control ensures that users have access only to the systems and data necessary for their roles, improving operational efficiency. PAM also automates tasks such as credential rotation and access reviews, which frees up IT resources and enables employees to focus on more strategic projects.
Enhances compliance and audit readiness
PAM plays an important role in helping organizations meet regulatory requirements such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). By maintaining detailed audit trails and logs of all privileged activity, PAM provides organizations with the transparency needed to demonstrate compliance during audits.
Scales security as your organization grows
As organizations expand – especially with remote teams – managing privileged access can become complex. PAM simplifies this process by providing centralized control over user access, regardless of location or device. It allows for easy policy updates, role-based access adjustments and rapid onboarding of new users, all while still maintaining security standards as the organization grows.
Secure your remote work environment with KeeperPAM®
In a remote work environment, securing privileged access is extremely important. KeeperPAM helps secure remote work environments by enabling Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA), providing encrypted connections and locking down service accounts through password rotation. With features such as RBAC, JIT access and secure credential management, KeeperPAM ensures that users have only temporary, task-specific permissions.
KeeperPAM also supports multi-cloud and hybrid environments, monitors and records remote sessions for compliance and integrates with an organization’s existing infrastructure to deliver comprehensive security for distributed teams.
To learn more about how KeeperPAM can help secure your organization’s remote work environment, request a demo today.