Top Challenges in Managing Privileged Accounts and How To Overcome Them

Privileged accounts provide access to an organization’s most sensitive data and systems. The top challenges in managing privileged accounts include a lack of visibility, inconsistent access control policies, weak password management practices and inadequate incident response plans.

Continue reading to learn seven common challenges organizations face when managing privileged accounts, and how to overcome these challenges with the help of a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution.

1. Lack of visibility and control over privileged accounts

As organizations grow, managing privileged accounts becomes more challenging. Without a centralized system, IT teams may lose track of accounts and what access they have to sensitive data and systems. Shared credentials in on-prem environments and inconsistent access levels in cloud environments make it difficult to enforce security policies. A lack of visibility and control over these accounts increases the risk of credential theft, insider threats and lateral movement within a network if unauthorized access remains undetected.

How to overcome it

Organizations can gain control over privileged accounts with a centralized PAM solution like KeeperPAM®. KeeperPAM provides full visibility and control, requiring approval workflows and tracking privileged account activity. Regular audits and continuous monitoring are important for ensuring proper permissions and detecting suspicious behavior.

2. Inconsistent access control policies

Many organizations struggle to apply access control policies consistently, leading to users with excessive or insufficient permissions. Varying access rules across teams make it difficult for security teams to enforce policies, risking noncompliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). This inconsistency can also leave privileged users with unnecessary standing access, increasing the risk of misuse or insider threats. 

How to overcome it

Organizations can mitigate the risks associated with inconsistent access control policies by enforcing the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), ensuring users only have necessary access. PoLP limits privileged access and restricts administrative privileges. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) should also be enforced to standardize access across systems by assigning access based on roles instead of individuals.

To strengthen access controls, organizations should leverage Privileged Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM), which ensures only authorized users can elevate their privileges when needed. PEDM enforces Just-in-Time (JIT) access and minimizes the risks associated with continuous privileged access by allowing users to temporarily elevate privileges when necessary. A crucial aspect of PEDM is the usage of ephemeral accounts, which grant temporary, elevated access for a specific task by creating completely new temporary accounts – not elevating the privileges of existing accounts. Once a task is completed, the ephemeral account will be automatically deleted to prevent continuous access to sensitive data.

Even with controls like PoLP, RBAC and PEDM in place, access requirements change over time as employees start different roles or new security threats evolve. Regular access reviews are crucial to adjust permissions as roles change or security threats evolve, reducing excessive privileges and ensuring compliance.

3. Weak password management practices

Many organizations lack strong password management practices. Weak, reused and poorly managed passwords – along with storing passwords in unencrypted documents – increase the risk of credential stuffing attacks, ransomware attacks and data breaches.

How to overcome it

According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 75% of cybercriminals usually target privileged accounts with compromised weak passwords, so organizations must enforce strong password hygiene. Instead of storing credentials in unencrypted documents, they should use a PAM solution with an encrypted password vault and automatic password rotation. Since strong passwords alone aren’t enough to protect privileged accounts, organizations should enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for an additional layer of security. They should also enforce strong password policies, including requiring long and complex passwords, preventing password reuse, scheduling automated password rotation and conducting regular password audits to identify weak or leaked credentials.

4. Lack of effective session monitoring

Organizations that do not effectively monitor privileged sessions face major security risks, including data breaches and insider threats. Unmonitored activity, such as unauthorized changes or malware installation, can go undetected. Session logs are crucial for investigating cyber attacks and help identify the cause of an attack, responsible parties and compromised data. Without them, organizations cannot properly assess security breaches.

How to overcome it

Organizations should implement real-time monitoring, session recording and centralized tracking to mitigate the risks of unmonitored privileged sessions. Real-time monitoring alerts security teams to suspicious activity, enabling quick responses. Organizations should integrate session monitoring with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) for centralized event tracking and enhanced security by detecting unusual login attempts, privilege escalations or unauthorized access across multiple security tools. Having real-time alerts fed into SIEM allows organizations to identify and evaluate security incidents more quickly, enhancing incident response. 

5. Difficulty in managing third-party vendor access

Granting third-party vendors access to privileged accounts introduces security risks. External vendors with elevated permissions require strict controls and monitoring to prevent credential compromise and breaches. For example, some vendors might need temporary access, while others may share login credentials with their entire team. Temporary access or shared login credentials reduce visibility, making it harder to track activity and hold vendors accountable for misuse.

How to overcome it

To reduce risks with third-party vendors, organizations should implement Just-in-Time (JIT) access, granting privileged access only when needed and automatically revoking it afterward. This limits exposure and reduces the risk of unauthorized access. Organizations must also monitor vendor activity, log access details and regularly review access to detect security risks, enforce accountability and respond quickly to incidents.

6. Inadequate incident response and recovery plans

When a privileged account is compromised, many organizations panic due to a lack of clear incident response plans, leading to delayed actions, greater damage and longer recovery times. Without a plan, organizations may struggle to identify responsible parties or assess the scope of the breach. Delayed responses allow cybercriminals to escalate privileges or disrupt operations, making it harder to contain the breach and increasing the potential damage.

How to overcome it

Organizations should prepare for privileged account misuse by creating a clear incident response plan that defines roles, response actions and containment procedures. Regular drills help security teams respond quickly to incidents, while simulations measure their effectiveness. Detailed logs of privileged account activity must be preserved securely to analyze incidents and strengthen access controls.

7. Difficulty in scaling PAM solutions for growing organizations

As organizations grow, manually managing privileged accounts increases security risks and the potential for human error. Tracking access to sensitive data becomes harder, leading to oversight and excessive permissions. Legacy PAM solutions, often designed for on-premises environments, struggle to scale in complex, hybrid or cloud-based environments, making it difficult to implement an automated, scalable solution for monitoring privileged accounts.

How to overcome it

Organizations need a scalable PAM solution to manage privileged accounts across expanding environments. An ideal solution grows with an organization and supports on-prem, cloud and hybrid infrastructures, offering centralized management and automation of account provisioning and deprovisioning. This reduces human error, delayed responses and security gaps. Investing in a cloud-native PAM solution offers scalability and seamless integration with growing cloud environments.

Overcome common privileged account challenges with KeeperPAM

To overcome these common privileged account challenges, your organization should implement KeeperPAM. KeeperPAM provides JIT access, automated password rotation, privileged session monitoring and seamless integration to ensure your organization has full control and visibility over privileged accounts. By eliminating human error and enforcing least-privilege access with KeeperPAM, your organization can reduce security risks and improve compliance with regulatory requirements.

Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to secure your privileged accounts and avoid the common challenges of managing them.