The Benefits of Integrating PAM With SIEM Solutions

Integrating Privileged Access Management (PAM) with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions offers many benefits for organizations, including enhanced threat detection, improved visibility, reduced risk of insider threats, simplified compliance and more. 

Continue reading to learn more about the benefits of integrating PAM with SIEM solutions and best practices for integrating the two. 

Understanding PAM and SIEM

PAM controls privileged users’ access to sensitive systems, while a SIEM collects and analyzes security data across an organization’s network.

What is privileged access management?

Privileged access management is a cybersecurity strategy consisting of processes, people and technology designed to protect accounts with elevated permissions that grant both humans and machines access to sensitive information and data. PAM solutions strengthen an organization’s security by managing, monitoring and securing privileged credentials against cyber risks.

What is security information and event management?

A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system is a cybersecurity solution that helps organizations monitor, detect and respond to security threats. The goal is to mitigate security risks before they can disrupt business operations. SIEM works by collecting and logging data generated from applications, systems and network hardware. It then analyzes the data to identify potential threats. 

There are three types of SIEM solutions: 

• Open-source SIEM solutions are customizable to meet an organization’s needs. 
• Free SIEM solutions offer basic functionality that is suitable for small businesses. 
• Enterprise SIEM solutions provide advanced features designed for large, complex environments.

How PAM and SIEM work together

PAM and SIEM solutions work together to provide a centralized security solution by controlling and monitoring privileged access to critical systems. PAM ensures that only privileged users can access sensitive systems and keeps a detailed log of their actions. A SIEM collects those records from the PAM solution, along with data from other systems, and continuously analyzes them for suspicious activity. If it detects anything unusual, the SIEM can trigger alerts or automate responses to address the threat. 

7 benefits of integrating PAM with SIEM

Here are seven benefits of integrating PAM with a SIEM. 

1. Enhances threat detection and prevention

Combining privileged access data with security event logs provides a more comprehensive view of network activity, allowing organizations to quickly identify threats. For example, if an employee with high-level privileges logs into a system at an unusual time or from an unusual location, the SIEM solution can detect this anomaly and trigger an alert. In response, PAM can immediately revoke the employee’s access before the threat escalates.

2. Streamlines incident response

When PAM is integrated with SIEM, it automates workflows by transmitting real-time data on privileged access activities directly to the SIEM system. This automation enables security teams to quickly access relevant information without manual intervention, eliminating the need to search through multiple systems for logs. This speeds up the investigation process and minimizes damage. 

3. Simplifies compliance and auditing

Complying with regulations and standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and HIPAA requires organizations to audit and report access to sensitive data and systems. Integrating PAM with a SIEM simplifies this process by providing a centralized platform to view, monitor and manage privileged access and security events. It offers security teams a clear and comprehensive audit trail, detailing who accessed which sensitive systems, when and what actions were taken. This is essential for compliance reporting and enhancing an organization’s security posture.  

4. Improves visibility into privileged user activity

Centralizing PAM and SIEM data provides real-time, comprehensive visibility into privileged user actions. This makes it easier to detect and analyze potential risks, such as unauthorized access or privilege escalation. With enhanced visibility, security teams can effectively monitor, investigate and respond to potential threats.

5. Reduces risk of insider threats

With improved visibility into privileged user activities, the risk of insider threats is also reduced. PAM solutions include features like privilege escalation detection, which involves tracking user activities and identifying attempts to gain unauthorized access or elevate privileges. Meanwhile, SIEM solutions use behavioral analysis to monitor and analyze user behavior over time. When a privileged user engages in unusual or suspicious activity, a SIEM can flag it for further investigation. Together, these features help security teams respond quickly to insider threats and take action before damage is done. 

6. Centralizes security management

Integrating PAM with a SIEM centralizes security management by consolidating critical security logs into one platform. With PAM’s detailed records of privileged user activity and a SIEM’s ability to correlate and analyze data from various sources, security teams gain a clear view of potential threats. This makes it easier to spot anomalies and suspicious activities across the IT environment. With all relevant data in one place, incident response is streamlined, enabling faster mitigation of security incidents.

7. Scalable for future growth

PAM and SIEM integration is ideal for supporting the growth of organizations because it ensures consistent security across an evolving IT environment, easily adapting to changes such as the addition of new users, systems or infrastructure. Additionally, automated scalability allows both systems to adjust without manual intervention. This ensures that security policies remain intact even as the organization’s IT environment evolves. 

Best practices for implementing PAM with SIEM

Several best practices should be followed when integrating PAM with a SIEM, including choosing scalable solutions, involving stakeholders early, aligning security policies across systems, providing regular training for staff and continuously reviewing and optimizing the integration.

Choose scalable solutions

It’s important to select scalable PAM and SIEM solutions to ensure that an organization’s security infrastructure can grow and adapt to future needs. As organizations continue to expand, so do the numbers of users, systems and data. Choosing scalable solutions helps organizations accommodate these changes without compromising security or efficiency. For instance, a cloud-based PAM solution provides greater flexibility, easier management and the ability to support a growing number of users, systems and data. Cloud-based solutions are designed to handle modern and dynamic IT environments, making it easier to integrate with SIEM systems. 

Involve key stakeholders early

Ensure that your organization’s IT, security, compliance and other relevant teams are involved early in the integration process. By engaging these stakeholders from the start, your organization can address potential challenges, align security policies and ensure that the integration supports regulatory compliance. This helps ensure that the PAM and SIEM solutions meet all functional, security and regulatory requirements. 

Align security policies across systems

Ensure that security policies are consistent between PAM and SIEM systems to prevent gaps and streamline access controls, monitoring and incident response. Inconsistent policies can create vulnerabilities where privileged access may go unmonitored, compromising the effectiveness of both systems. It’s also important to adopt a zero-trust PAM solution, which limits access by default and continuously verifies users. This approach enhances the SIEM’s ability to detect and respond to unusual behavior by ensuring that only authenticated and authorized actions take place.

Continuously review and optimize the integration

Lastly, it is important to regularly review and optimize the integration of your organization’s PAM and SIEM solutions to ensure that your organization’s security posture remains strong against evolving threats, technologies and business needs. By doing so, businesses can maintain a secure defense against increasingly complex security threats. 

The bottom line

Integrating PAM with SIEM solutions enhances security, compliance and operational efficiency across an organization. Consider assessing your organization’s current security posture and exploring how integrating PAM with SIEM can improve your security framework. Investing in a modern PAM solution like KeeperPAM is the first step toward achieving visibility over privileged accounts. 

KeeperPAM is a zero-trust, cloud-based solution that enables your organization to integrate with SIEM systems, providing the most scalable security infrastructure. 

To learn more about how KeeperPAM can enhance your organization’s security, request a demo today.