What Problems Can PAM Solve for My Organization?

Implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution can solve challenges like uncontrolled access to privileged accounts, insider threats, secret sprawl and lack of secure remote access. According to a recent EMA Research Report, 54% of organizations indicated they have granted privileged access on business systems to users who are not direct employees. This practice raises serious security concerns, especially since privileged accounts are among the top targets for cybercriminals due to the extensive access they provide. 

Continue reading to learn how PAM helps solve the common problems organizations face. 

1. Uncontrolled access to privileged accounts

Privileged accounts often provide broad and unrestricted access to an organization’s most critical systems. Users with these accounts, such as IT administrators or service accounts, can perform administrative and sensitive tasks such as modifying system configurations, managing user permissions and deploying software. However, if a cybercriminal or malicious insider gains access to a privileged account, the organization may face severe consequences, including financial losses, data breaches and reputational damage. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Centralized credential management: A PAM solution centralizes all privileged credentials in a secure, encrypted vault, allowing security teams to tightly control who can access what and when. 
• Enforces least privilege access: PAM enforces the principle of least privilege through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure that users are granted only the minimum access necessary for their roles. It can also restrict users’ actions within systems they have access to, preventing them from gaining excessive or unnecessary privileges. 
• Just-in-Time (JIT) provisioning: PAM also supports JIT access, which provides temporary, time-bound privileges. Once the task is completed, access is automatically revoked. This ensures that privileged access is tightly controlled and short-lived. 
• Session monitoring: PAM’s session monitoring feature allows organizations to observe privileged sessions in real time. It allows organizations to track exactly what actions are taken when privileged accounts are in use. This ensures that privileged activities are always under control and can be reviewed anytime. 

2. Insider threats and misuse of privileged access

Internal users with privileged access can pose a significant risk to organizations. These users can use their privileges to steal data, alter configurations or disrupt operations. Unlike external cyber threats, insider threats are harder to detect because the users involved often operate within their normal scope of access and activity. Their ability to bypass security controls rarely raises suspicion, as it aligns with their assigned permissions. 

This was exemplified in 2023 at Tesla, when two former employees leaked personal information to a media outlet, affecting over 75,000 current and former employees. Whether the misuse is malicious or accidental, insider actions can cause serious consequences for both data security and business continuity. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Session management: PAM monitors and records all privileged sessions, capturing detailed logs of privileged user activity. By knowing their actions are being recorded, users are less likely to misuse access. Additionally, in the event of suspicious activity, security teams can respond to insider threats quickly. 
• Supports time-bound access: Through JIT access, PAM grants temporary elevated privileges that can be automatically revoked once the task is completed. This minimizes the time window during which users have elevated access, reducing the potential for misuse.
• Enables full audit trails and alerting: PAM solutions can generate full audit trails that log every privileged action taken by users. This allows organizations to trace back any anomalies. Additionally, PAM can be configured to trigger real-time alerts based on specific actions, including failed login attempts, changes to administrative settings or session access outside approved hours.  

3. Exposure of credentials and secrets

Storing sensitive credentials, such as passwords, SSH keys and API tokens, in insecure formats like plaintext files or spreadsheets leaves them vulnerable to compromise. These storage methods lack encryption and access controls, making them easy targets for cybercriminals. If cybercriminals gain access, they can quickly extract these credentials and exploit them to launch data leaks, phishing campaigns or credential stuffing attacks.

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Secure credential vaulting: PAM’s credential vaulting feature stores passwords, SSH keys and other secrets in a secure, encrypted vault. Users can never view or handle their credentials. This eliminates the risk of credentials being stored in insecure formats, reducing accidental exposure. 
• Automated password rotation: PAM can rotate passwords automatically, reducing the risk of credentials being reused or stolen. Even if a credential is exposed, automated rotation ensures it becomes quickly invalid, limiting its usefulness to cybercriminals and preventing long-term access.

4. Secrets sprawl in DevOps and CI/CD pipelines

Hardcoded secrets, such as API keys, passwords, access tokens and credentials, are often embedded into codebases, scripts or configuration files. The issue with this practice is that these secrets can be easily exposed to unauthorized individuals. This insecure practice leads to what’s known as secrets sprawl, where credentials are scattered across various channels without centralized oversight. 

Additionally, managing key rotation becomes challenging and error-prone when secrets are hardcoded. They must be manually updated in each instance of the secret across all systems, and if the key is updated in one location but not in others, it can result in inconsistencies such as access failures and system downtime. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Centralized secrets storage: PAM provides a secure, centralized vault for storing secrets. These secrets are encrypted both at rest and in transit. This ensures that secrets are not left unprotected in multiple locations.  
• Secure API integration: PAM solutions stop secrets sprawl by removing hardcoded credentials from source code, config files and CI/CD systems. Instead, secrets can be pulled from a secure API endpoint at runtime, ensuring that secrets are never exposed in the codebase. This reduces the risk of secrets being compromised through code exposure or data leaks, which are two common causes of secrets sprawl.
• Automated key injection: PAM can automatically inject credentials into applications or services at runtime. This allows necessary access without hardcoding secrets, preventing them from being exposed in plaintext or scattered across environments.
• Reduces developer burden: By automating secret retrieval and injection, PAM eliminates the need for developers to manage or embed credentials manually. This reduces human error and improves consistency. 

5. Lack of secure remote access

Remote employees, contractors and third parties often require privileged access to critical systems to perform their roles effectively. However, without proper security controls in place, granting this access can introduce serious vulnerabilities and expand the organization’s attack surface. 

Many remote users may connect to unsecured public networks, which can be intercepted by cybercriminals using Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks. Additionally, users often rely on personal or unmanaged devices that may lack proper endpoint protection, contain unpatched vulnerabilities or already have malware. These insecure endpoints create potential entry points for cybercriminals to gain access to an organization’s systems. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Provides agentless access via browser or desktop app: Leading PAM solutions offer secure, agentless access through a browser or desktop application. This means users don’t need to install software agents on their devices, eliminating potential entry points that agents can create for cybercriminals.
• Supports secure tunneling: PAM securely routes all communications between a remote user and the targeted system through an encrypted channel, without exposing passwords or requiring a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This ensures that privileged access is securely provided to remote users, with end-to-end encryption protecting data in transit from interception. 
• Enables Remote Browser Isolation (RBI): PAM also supports RBI, which enables users to access internal web services and applications through a secure, isolated browser session hosted in a controlled environment. This means that if there are any potential threats, they are contained within the isolated session, preventing them from reaching the user’s local device or the entire network. Additionally, RBI allows organizations to record and monitor all activity performed by third-party users within your systems. 

6. Standing privileges that increase risk

Long-term, or standing, privileges increase the risk of misuse or exploitation because they grant users continuous access to sensitive systems and data – even if the user no longer needs it. Over time, users may gradually accumulate unnecessary privileges, known as privilege creep, as they take on new roles and responsibilities. This often goes unchecked, leaving users with far more access than needed. If a cybercriminal compromises an account with standing privileges, they can move laterally through your organization’s network and escalate their privileges. This makes detecting the threat and containing the breach much more difficult because the user was legitimately granted these permissions. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Supports JIT access: PAM allows users to request elevated access for specific tasks and automatically removes it afterwards. This ensures that privileged access is temporary and prevents users from having unrestricted access at all times.
• Improves operational hygiene: PAM enforces the principle of least privilege, ensuring users have access only to what they need, when they need it. 
• Reduces attack surface: By minimizing standing privileges and removing unnecessary access, PAM reduces the number of potential entry points for cybercriminals. Even if an account is compromised, the attack is limited in what it can access, which makes it harder to escalate privileges. 

7. IT overhead from manual access management

Managing privileged access manually slows down IT and security teams. Tasks such as provisioning and deprovisioning access, handling password resets and managing infrastructure access are time-consuming and burdensome. As organizations grow, the number of systems, accounts and users requiring privileged access increases. Manual processes also introduce inconsistencies and delays, where IT teams may struggle to keep up with revoking access when employees change roles or leave the organization. This can lead to overprivileged, dormant accounts, which become prime targets for cybercriminals.

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Simplifies user provisioning and deprovisioning: PAM reduces the complexity of onboarding and offboarding user access by integrating with identity systems like System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM). This integration simplifies the management of user information across various systems. By automating this process, it eliminates the need for IT to manually set up accounts, manage access and revoke permissions – tasks that are often time-consuming and error-prone. 
• Supports Single Sign-On (SSO): PAM supports SSO, which authenticates users on multiple applications with just one login credential. This not only simplifies the user login experience by eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords, but also reduces IT overhead by cutting down on password reset requests.
• Reduces help desk tickets: Users can securely retrieve credentials or access resources with PAM. This cuts down on common access-related issues, such as incorrect permissions or forgotten passwords, that typically generate high-volume help desk requests. 

8. Lack of visibility into privileged activities

Lack of insight presents several security challenges. Suspicious or unauthorized behavior can easily go unnoticed. Additionally, organizations may struggle to produce the logs needed to demonstrate that access was properly managed and controlled. This not only compromises the ability to identify potential vulnerabilities but also puts organizations at risk of failing to meet compliance requirements. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Delivers full session recording and playback: PAM records all privileged sessions and makes them available for playback. This provides critical forensic evidence, allowing security teams to trace actions to a specific user and session – especially in the event of a security incident. 
• Flags anomalies: PAM continuously monitors privileged activities for unusual behavior, such as failed login attempts, unexpected administrative changes or unusual data access patterns. These anomalies can trigger automatic alerts, prompting immediate investigation and supporting a faster, more effective incident response. 
• Logs all administrative activity to Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): PAM integrates with SIEM platforms to forward detailed logs of all privileged activity automatically. This supports real-time threat detection, accelerates incident response and eliminates the need to manually search across multiple systems during investigations. 

9. Inability to meet compliance requirements

Regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOX and PCI-DSS require strict controls over access to sensitive data and systems. These regulations often call for strong authentication measures, granular access control and – in some cases – require that detailed access logs be maintained and readily available for auditors. Organizations that rely on manual processes for managing privileged access struggle to meet these requirements consistently and accurately.

Manual processes can lead to human errors and delays in reporting, further complicating efforts to demonstrate compliance, which increases the risk of compliance failures. 

How a PAM solution solves this problem

• Enforces Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): PAM integrates with MFA solutions to ensure users verify their identity using multiple authentication methods before accessing privileged accounts. This satisfies compliance requirements and reduces the risk of unauthorized access.
• Generates detailed logs and reports: PAM can automatically capture and store logs of all privileged activity from start to finish, including commands executed, login attempts and other session details. This enables organizations to easily demonstrate compliance during regulatory audits, as it allows auditors to quickly review access events without manual effort. 
• Enables Segregation of Duties (SoD): PAM allows organizations to divide important tasks across multiple users to prevent conflicts of interest through RBAC. This supports compliance with frameworks like SOX, which require segregation of duties to ensure that no individual has unchecked control over sensitive functions. 

Solve today’s access risks with KeeperPAM®

A privileged access management solution addresses various challenges that come with securing, managing and monitoring privileged access. By centralizing control over high-level credentials, PAM ensures that only authorized users can access critical systems and data. 

KeeperPAM® offers comprehensive features, including least-privilege enforcement, real-time monitoring, detailed logging, automated SCIM provisioning and the ability to integrate with SIEM tools. These capabilities not only streamline access management but also provide organizations with a granular view of user activity. By implementing KeeperPAM, organizations can effectively address access risk and strengthen their overall security posture by ensuring that privileged access is tightly controlled. 

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