The Five Central Pillars of a Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Implementing a PAM system in your organisation is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of an external or internal incident by preventing malicious actors from accessing your most sensitive data through an internal account. But could your company quickly identify who has access to your most important data or systems? In this article we will summarise which are the relevant building blocks of a Privileged Access Management (PAM) to identify and monitor these privileged users.

Privileged user accounts usually allow extensive access to corporate information, which is why they represent a central attack vector for cyber attacks. Regulatory requirements increase the pressure to act to systematically secure overlapping access, especially with a focus on privileged user management. Systematic privileged access management (PAM) serves to protect information and achieve compliance by systematically securing privileged access and enabling its effective management. The five central pillars we have identified for an efficient PAM solution ensure a high level of control and security and ensure efficient use of privileged user accounts.

The foundation: Holistic PAM concept

When setting up a PAM system, it is important to have a solid foundation that forms a comprehensive basis for the entire system. This is ensured by creating a holistic PAM concept. The concept formulates the fundamentally internally valid specifications for the PAM solution and defines the basic functional and technological structure of the PAM system. Another component of the concept is the definition and coordination of clear roles and responsibilities and their integration into the defined PAM processes. In particular, the interfaces with other systems such as Identity and Access Management (IAM) or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) must be taken into account.

Pillar 1: Identification processes

The existence of an unrecorded and uncontrolled privileged user account, even if only for a short period of time, can represent a significant security risk. For this reason, the identification of privileged system access within the IT landscape is essential. PAM software that can continuously and automatically identify privileged user accounts, significantly reduces manual effort. In accordance with the need-to-know principle, privileged authorisations that are not required are withdrawn accordingly and all user accounts that actually need to access critical assets are specifically monitored by session management.

Pillar 2: Authentication methods

Access to privileged user accounts and the corresponding authentication information must be specially secured so that only desired persons can access highly critical data. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) uses at least two independent components for authentication. In addition to a knowledge component (password), the stronger use of possession components (token) or biometric components (fingerprint) is recommended. Strong MFA procedures should be integrated accordingly into the PAM solution. This applies in particular to systems with high protection requirements.

Another measure to increase IT security requirements is the implementation of a Zero Trust Model (ZTM). The guiding principle of Zero Trust is "never trust, always verify", which means that user accounts should not be trusted by default. ZTM is gaining popularity especially for highly critical IT assets. It is a model that implies the maximum exposure, starting from the user action, and therefore evaluates every action against this background. To this end, resource access is basically denied until users and devices have been verified and authenticated beyond doubt.

Pillar 3: Access control/governance

To establish systematic access and control governance over privileged user accounts, user lifecycle management is necessary. This means that all authorisation-relevant steps and associated processes are precisely defined from the initial creation of a new user until the user leaves the company. This is the only way to ensure that the creation, modification and deactivation of privileged user accounts is controlled and traceable.

Another option for restricting access is just-in-time access, which grants privileged access only when necessary for a short period of time and then removes it. In addition to granting access, it is also crucial to control the use of privileged authorisations.

Pillar 4: Activity monitoring

A proven method for monitoring privileged user accounts is to systematically record critical user activities (session management). Suitable audit processes must be implemented by integrating a SIEM solution that identifies misuse of privileges. Here, access records are regularly checked and acute measures are taken to react to actions beyond the assigned authorisation levels.

Pillar 5: Automation

Tasks that are particularly predictable, repetitive or error-prone, such as simple configuration changes, service restarts or log management, can usually be automated. Effective automation aims to increase the reliability, security and efficiency of systems. For this reason, DevOps automation or Robotic Process Automation should be discussed when implementing a PAM solution. Software robots bring not only significantly higher data security, but also an increase in the speed of processes and the quality of task results.

The holistic PAM concept and the five central pillars based on it are indispensable for ensuring the successful establishment of a PAM solution. This systematic approach ensures both the protection of sensitive corporate data and infrastructures, and the effective management of privileged user accounts.