Seven Risks of Not Having Privileged Access Management

According to Cobalt, the cost of cyber attacks is rising, with costs predicted to reach $15.63 trillion by 2029. This highlights the growing need for Privileged Access Management (PAM). Without a PAM solution, organizations face significant security and operational risks, including increased vulnerability to data breaches, insider threats, compliance failures and costly errors. 

Privileged accounts are prime targets for threat actors due to their elevated permissions and access to sensitive data. PAM solutions help mitigate these risks by providing visibility and control over who is accessing what, when and how – making these platforms a critical component in protecting an organization’s most valuable resources. 

Continue reading to learn the key risks of operating without a PAM solution in place.

1. Increased risk of data breaches

Data breaches occur when unauthorized individuals access an organization’s sensitive information. Without PAM, organizations face increased risk because privileged accounts – such as those belonging to system administrators and service accounts – often go unmonitored and unmanaged, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. If a privileged account is compromised, cybercriminals can move laterally across the network, escalating privileges to access critical systems and data. Once inside, they may steal, leak or sell this data on the dark web. 

As a result, the organization may suffer reputational damage, leading to lost customers and business opportunities. Additionally, it may face legal consequences and financial losses, including fines, lawsuits and remediation costs. 

A notable example is the 2024 AT&T breach, in which data stored on a third-party cloud storage company was left poorly secured. As a result, personal information from 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former AT&T accounts was exposed and released on the dark web. AT&T is not only facing an ongoing lawsuit, but also dealing with significant damage to its reputation and a loss of customer trust.

A PAM solution reduces the risk of data breaches by providing the following capabilities:

• Credential vaulting: PAM provides a secure, encrypted vault for storing privileged credentials. This helps organizations prevent credentials from being exposed or shared insecurely and restricts access to only authorized users. 
• Privileged session management: PAM gives organizations the ability to record and monitor privileged sessions. These recordings can be reviewed after a security incident to identify who accessed what and when. This also helps prevent potential security breaches and misuse by insider threats, enabling organizations to detect suspicious activity and enforce accountability, as every action can be traced back to the user responsible.
• Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): PAM enables organizations to enforce least-privilege access by granting users only the permissions necessary for their roles, and for only the time they require it. This limits the potential impact if an account is compromised.

2. Exposure to insider threats

Insider threats are cyber risks originating from within an organization, typically involving employees, contractors or partners who have authorized access to critical systems and data. These threats can be malicious, where an insider intentionally causes harm, or unintentional, resulting from negligence or human error. Without PAM, organizations lack visibility and control over privileged access. This creates a security gap that makes it easier for insiders to exploit unchecked privileges without detection. Insider threats are especially dangerous because they originate from trusted users with direct access to sensitive systems and data, allowing them to bypass standard security controls easily.

PAM helps mitigate insider threats by providing the following:

• Session monitoring: PAM gives organizations the ability to monitor privileged sessions in real time. This makes it possible to detect suspicious behavior and take action when needed. Every action is linked to a specific user to ensure accountability, deterring users from exploiting their privileges. 
• Granular access control: PAM allows organizations to define and enforce access controls to ensure users have access only to the resources they need for their role. This minimizes the number of users with elevated access and reduces the attack surface for insider threats.
• Real-time alerts: The best PAM solutions help organizations set up alerts for suspicious activity, such as failed login attempts, unusual admin actions or long session durations. These alerts give IT teams the tools to quickly investigate and respond to potential insider threats.

3. No enforcement of least privilege

The principle of least privilege ensures that users only have the minimum level of access required to do their jobs. Without PAM, it’s difficult for organizations to enforce this principle because they lack the tools to control, monitor and limit privileged access with precision. This often results in excessive access, where users can access systems or data unrelated to their role, or standing access, where elevated permissions remain in place long after they’re needed. Both situations create security risks. A user with unnecessary privileges could, intentionally or accidentally, access sensitive systems or misuse their rights. Failing to enforce PoLP also broadens the attack surface. When access isn’t tightly controlled, spotting misuse becomes harder for security teams.

PAM supports the enforcement of PoLP by enabling organizations to:

• Set granular access controls: PAM gives organizations the tools to implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), allowing access to be defined based on roles. This ensures that users are limited to only the permissions they need and reduces the risk of excessive access. 
• Implement Just-In-Time (JIT) access: PAM allows temporary elevation of privileges only when needed. Once the task is complete, access can be automatically revoked to reduce the window of exposure. This guarantees that users have the least amount of access required at any given time, minimizing the opportunity for privilege misuse.
• Session recording and monitoring: PAM records and monitors all privileged sessions in real time. This level of visibility allows organizations to verify that users are performing only actions within the scope of their assigned task.

4. Compliance failures and audit challenges

Regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, FISMA and SOX require organizations to implement strict access controls to limit unnecessary access to sensitive data and maintain compliance. Many of these standards also call for audit capabilities that track and log access to critical systems. Audit logs are essential for demonstrating that access controls are working as intended. Without a PAM solution, organizations often struggle to enforce access controls consistently and lack the visibility needed to generate complete, accurate audit trails. This can lead to gaps in documentation, which makes it harder to prove compliance and increases the risk of penalties, fines and reputational damage.

PAM supports compliance efforts and simplifies audits by enabling organizations to:

• Maintain detailed audit trails: PAM logs all privileged activity and captures who accessed what, when and what actions were taken. These records help organizations demonstrate that access is properly controlled and aligned with compliance requirements. 
• Record and review privileged sessions: PAM can provide full session recordings to give IT and compliance teams a clear view of how systems were accessed. These recordings can serve as evidence during audits.
• Enforce least privilege access: PAM helps apply RBAC to ensure users have only the minimum level of access needed. This is a requirement across most regulatory standards, including HIPAA, PCI DSS and SOX.

5. Limited visibility and control

Organizations need full visibility and control over access to sensitive data to stay compliant and reduce security risks. Without PAM, it’s difficult to track who accessed which systems, when and for what purpose. This lack of insight creates blind spots that make it harder to detect and respond to suspicious activity in time. As a result, threats may go unnoticed, audit trails may be incomplete and compliance becomes more difficult to maintain. Without proactive controls in place, organizations are left reacting to incidents after they happen – often too late to prevent serious damage. 

PAM helps close these gaps by providing organizations with the tools to:

• Monitor sessions in real time: Organizations can observe and record privileged sessions as they happen. This makes it possible to respond immediately to suspicious or unauthorized activity.
• Manage live sessions: PAM gives admins the ability to pause, lock or terminate active privileged sessions. This gives organizations proper oversight and the ability to quickly intervene if suspicious activity is detected.
• Integrate with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools: PAM supports forwarding logs to SIEM platforms for deeper analysis. This extends visibility and supports proactive threat detection across the organization.

6. Operational inefficiencies and human error

Organizations without PAM are more vulnerable to operational inefficiencies and human error. IT and security teams often rely on manual processes to track and manage privileged access, which are time-consuming and error-prone. This manual approach complicates privileged access management and often leads to misconfigurations, forgotten credentials and outdated permissions – all of which create significant security vulnerabilities. The lack of automation can also delay the provisioning or deprovisioning of access. These delays not only slow down business operations but also increase the risk of internal misuse and external attacks.

PAM helps organizations reduce operational overhead and human error by supporting: 

• Credential management automation: PAM provides the tools to automate how privileged credentials are shared and rotated. With the right configurations in place, this reduces manual effort and helps prevent forgotten or outdated credentials. 
• User provisioning and deprovisioning workflows: PAM can integrate with identity systems like System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) to streamline the creation, updating and removal of user accounts across critical systems. When properly implemented, this helps ensure users receive the right level of access during onboarding, role changes or offboarding. These tools eliminate the risk of overprovisioning, which is often caused by manual processes.
• Secure tunneling: PAM supports encrypted connections to reduce exposure and eliminate the need for manual network configurations. This simplifies secure access to sensitive systems and helps limit the risk of unauthorized entry.

7. Higher costs after a breach

The financial impact of a data breach often far exceeds the cost of implementing a PAM solution. According to IBM, the global average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.88 million. This figure includes expenses such as cleanup, remediation, legal fees, regulatory fines, downtime and customer loss. The costs can add up quickly, especially when sensitive data such as financial records or customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is involved. Instead of dealing with the fallout of a breach, organizations should focus on preventing unauthorized access in the first place by implementing a PAM solution. 

Mitigate cyber risks with KeeperPAM^®

The consequences of not having a privileged access management solution can be severe – and sometimes even difficult to recover from. With a strong PAM solution, your organization won’t have to think twice about data breaches, insider threats, compliance failures, operational inefficiency, lack of visibility or costly errors.

PAM isn’t a luxury; it’s something every organization needs to protect its most important data and systems. It gives you better control over who has access to what and helps you prevent problems before they happen. Now is a good time to take a closer look at how your organization handles access and where a PAM solution could make things safer and easier.

Request a demo of KeeperPAM today and see just how easy it can be to securely manage privileged accounts.