{"id":66462,"date":"2022-07-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=66462"},"modified":"2022-10-24T23:18:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T03:18:16","slug":"choosing-a-pam-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/choosing-a-pam-solution","title":{"rendered":"Choosing the Right PAM Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What do your IT department, your accounting department, and your c-suite execs have in common? They all have a special type of account, known as a \u201cprivileged\u201d account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A privileged account is any business identity that has more access to sensitive information than the average user. For IT admins, this means the ability to provision or deprovision accounts. For accounting, it\u2019s their access to company payment and financial information. For c-suite executives, it\u2019s\u2026well, all the things c-suite executives can access that typical employees cannot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing with privileged accounts is that they\u2019re risky when it comes to cyberthreats. That\u2019s because bad actors are more likely to try to compromise privileged accounts than other account types, due to their extra access and permissions. Because of the extra risks, IT admins must be correspondingly diligent in creating a failsafe Privileged Access Management (PAM)<\/a> solution for managing these accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019ll explain how PAM tools work and the benefits of implementing them \u2013 and the risks if you don\u2019t. Then, we\u2019ll give you some considerations when choosing your PAM solution, and some best practices on implementing your new policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does PAM Work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A robust PAM solution isn\u2019t just one security protocol; <\/em>instead, it\u2019s a layered<\/em> solution with multiple security and safety failsafes put in place. While any one component alone may be breached, a multifunctional PAM tool provides so many layers of protection that cyberattack becomes very difficult, if not impossible. Let\u2019s look at a few examples of how PAM solves some of the most common security problems.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT Management Sprawl: Unified Platform <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Problem: <\/strong>Without a single pane of glass from which to manage all identities and devices, IT admins are burdened with organizing and overseeing hundreds of separate devices and users. This makes management challenging \u2013 especially in the event of a breach or suspicious activity. With device management spread out in multiple platforms, admins may not be properly alerted to the issue, or may struggle to contain the problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution: <\/strong>Modern PAM tools offer a single, unified platform where admins can easily oversee all their devices and privileged users. They\u2019re able to create a single entry point all users must be verified through before accessing critical resources. Time or session limits can easily be created for additional security, and in the event of an issue or attack, the session can remotely be terminated almost immediately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weak Credentials: Heightened Password Requirements <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Problem: <\/strong>Many users have weak, easy-to-guess passwords, or re-use the same passwords for both privileged business access and unsecured personal accounts. This provides a foothold for cybercriminals into these privileged resources. And every personal account with the same credentials provides an additional attack vector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution: <\/strong>PAM tools provide password protection resources like password managers and single sign-on (SSO)<\/a>. They also allow admins to specify more advanced password requirements or more frequent password changes. Password vaults\/SSO replace all individual, easily-guessed passwords with a single, complex security key, providing access to all assigned privileged resources at a much lower risk. Even if SSO isn\u2019t utilized, PAM tools allow IT admins to require complex passwords (like passwords that must be at least 12 characters, include a number, a symbol, and no words, for instance), and frequent password changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oversimplified Login Processes: Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Problem: <\/strong>Legacy credential solutions simply require a username and password (of dubious complexity) to gain access to resources. Passwords are not only frequently included in data leaks, but are fairly simple for cybercriminals to guess. What\u2019s more, simple login processes don\u2019t protect against users sharing their credentials with others, or writing the information down and leaving it somewhere visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution: <\/strong>PAM tools include multi-factor authentication set ups. MFA makes it much more difficult for bad actors to gain access by requiring a user to enter something they know<\/em> (typically their username and password) and something they have <\/em>(like a push notification to their personal phone, a time-based one-time password [TOTP], a YubiKey, or even biometric data, like their fingerprint). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you need a PAM Tool?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of a modern PAM solution for increased security are evident. But implementing PAM is about so much more than simple security. Let\u2019s get into the detail of some of these benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n