Best Practices For Responding to Privileged Access Requests

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 is securely managing privileged access requests and ensuring that access is granted only when necessary, properly authenticated and monitored in real time. Best practices for handling privileged access requests include establishing a clear access policy, implementing strong authentication methods and applying least-privilege access.

Continue reading to learn best practices for handling privileged access requests and how a PAM solution can help.

Why properly handling privileged access requests is important

It’s important for organizations to manage privileged access requests properly to ensure compliance with regulatory standards, minimize security risks and avoid operational or financial consequences.

Regulatory compliance

Many laws and regulations require organizations to closely monitor who has access to sensitive data and systems, ensuring only authorized users can access sensitive information. Properly managing privileged access helps organizations comply with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), reducing the risk of penalties or legal issues.

Minimizing security risks

Privileged accounts are prime targets for cybercriminals because they have higher levels of access to sensitive information than regular accounts. If privileged accounts are not closely controlled and monitored, cybercriminals can gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, leading to data breaches, malware infections or even system shutdowns.

Operational and financial consequences

Mismanaging privileged access requests can lead to system outages, costly data recovery efforts and significant financial losses. Operations may also slow down if unauthorized changes or fraudulent activity disrupt an organization’s normal workflow. For example, if a cybercriminal alters or deletes sensitive information while having unauthorized access, an organization may face challenges recovering lost data or restoring its damaged reputation.

Best practices to follow when handling privileged access requests

When managing privileged access requests, organizations should implement the following best practices to enhance security and mitigate risks.

Establish a clear access policy

An access policy defines how privileged access requests are evaluated and approved. IT administrators should establish a clear access policy that specifies who can receive privileged access and under what circumstances. A well-defined policy ensures consistency, accountability and security, helping organizations manage requests effectively while adapting to growth. Regularly reviewing and updating access policies helps maintain alignment with evolving security needs.

Implement strong authentication methods

Verifying users who request privileged access with strong authentication methods ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information. Strong authentication methods, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), protect against unauthorized access, even if a privileged account’s password is compromised. Additional security measures, such as Single Sign-On (SSO) or Time-Based One-Time Passwords (TOTPs), significantly reduce the chance of unauthorized users gaining access to systems.

Apply the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP)

The Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) ensures that users, applications and systems have only the access necessary for their specific roles. By granting minimal privileges, organizations can reduce the risk of human error, insider threats and privilege misuse. Implementing PoLP requires ongoing management to ensure access levels remain appropriate, such as verifying that an employee’s privileged access aligns with their current role or revoking access when an employee leaves the organization.

Maintain detailed audit logs

Audit logs track privileged access activity, including request details, approvals and actions taken while accessing the requested resource. Maintaining detailed records of all access requests, activities and approvals for privileged accounts is important for organizations to gain full visibility into how accounts are used. Audit logs help hold users accountable for their actions, discouraging privilege misuse and insider threats.

Automate the request and approval process

Manually handling privileged access requests can be time-consuming and more prone to human error. Automating the process ensures faster approvals while enforcing security policies. For example, in large organizations where employees frequently request access to sensitive databases, automation can streamline approvals based on predefined criteria, such as a user’s role, and automatically approve low-risk requests. High-risk requests can still require manual approval.

Implement temporary access for specific tasks

Provide users with time-limited access for specific tasks instead of standing access to reduce the risk of misuse or errors with sensitive data. When paired with automated credential rotation, Just-in-Time (JIT) access minimizes an organization’s attack surface because even if an account is compromised, access will be automatically revoked, and the credentials will be rotated after a certain period. Temporary access also prevents privilege creep by linking access directly to specific tasks instead of granting indefinite access to privileged accounts.

How PAM solutions streamline and secure privileged access requests

Organizations can streamline and secure privileged access requests by using a PAM solution, which streamlines privileged access request approvals and password rotation, centralizes request management and monitors privileged sessions in real time.

Automates privileged access request approvals

PAM solutions automate the approval process for privileged access requests, reducing the manual workload for IT administrators while ensuring consistent policy enforcement. PAM automatically routes requests to the appropriate administrators and speeds up the approval process. With automated privileged access request approvals, IT teams no longer need to review each request for low-risk accounts, minimizing the risk of human error. However, approvals can still be manually done for high-risk accounts.

Centralizes request management

A PAM solution provides security teams with full visibility and control through a centralized dashboard. This allows teams to approve or deny requests more efficiently while enforcing security policies and reducing the risk of misuse. Without centralized request management, users may request access through email, chats or ticketing systems, creating a more chaotic and inefficient process for administrators who need to track those requests.

Enforces Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

With PAM solutions, an organization can enforce Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), ensuring users are granted access based solely on their roles. PAM limits privileges to only what is necessary, simplifying request management and adhering to the PoLP. PAM enables organizations to associate roles with specific privileges and define which types of access requests should be automatically approved based on certain roles. Enforcing RBAC provides organizations with an efficient and secure way to manage privileged access requests, reducing the misuse of privileged accounts and the potential damage of a data breach.

Monitors and records sessions in real time

PAM solutions provide real-time visibility and accountability to detect and respond to suspicious activity by allowing administrators to monitor and record privileged sessions continuously. PAM can capture every action a privileged user performs, both on-screen activity and keystrokes,  providing security teams the ability to intervene if they detect abnormal behavior in real time, mitigating cyber attacks and preventing insider threats from taking action. These features create a strong audit trail that helps organizations comply with security standards and analyze problematic privileged sessions.

Provides time-limited access and Just-in-Time (JIT) privileges

PAM solutions grant temporary access to privileged accounts and Just-in-Time (JIT) privileges. This means users are given time-limited access to privileged accounts only when necessary and for a specific period. As soon as the task is completed, access is automatically revoked to minimize security risks, such as privilege escalation, and ensure stricter control over sensitive information. Rather than granting standing access, organizations should use a PAM solution to provide users with time-limited access and JIT privileges to prevent privilege creep, increase accountability and improve operational efficiency.

Automates credential management

PAM solutions automate credential management for privileged accounts, securely storing and rotating credentials to reduce the risk of credential theft and misuse. Automated credential management ensures privileged accounts are protected while remaining easily accessible to authorized users when necessary. PAM solutions achieve this by storing privileged credentials in an encrypted password vault and rotating them regularly to prevent hackers from exploiting static credentials.

Generates detailed audit logs and reports

PAM solutions maintain detailed logs of all access requests, approvals and activities, which can be generated as reports for auditing and compliance purposes. The detailed logs and reports generated by PAM can be used by organizations to maintain a centralized, automated record of all privileged access activities. By maintaining a comprehensive record of privileged access requests, PAM provides organizations with complete visibility into how privileged accounts are used.

Secure and simplify privileged access requests with KeeperPAM^®

KeeperPAM helps organizations streamline the management of privileged access requests by offering a unified, easy-to-use PAM solution. KeeperPAM automates access request approvals, reducing delays and minimizing manual effort that can lead to human error. It also grants JIT access to privileged accounts and records all privileged access activities in real time, providing detailed reports to ensure accountability and operational efficiency.

Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to reduce audit stress and improve response times for managing privileged access requests within your organization.