Within a business, certain accounts in a network are often given more privileges than others, meaning they can complete tasks or access files that other accounts are not able to. For example, a business owner’s account will probably have more permissions, via an admin log in, than an employee’s account. This system can be great for the operations of your company, maintaining efficiency and protecting the security of your computer systems from internal threats and simple accidents. However, more privileged accounts are more likely to become the target of scams. By gaining access to these accounts, hackers and scammers would have broader access to your system, making privileged accounts prime targets.
Due to this heightened threat, Privileged Access Management (PAM) is becoming a more crucial layer of protection. PAM is a security solution that protects your system by monitoring, detecting, and preventing unauthorized privileged access to your sensitive data. This security measure can offer insights into who is accessing what and what they are doing while logged in. PAM solutions often work by first identifying who in a company needs higher privileges within a system and which privileges they need to complete their tasks, or limiting all admin access to the IT staff or provider to await approval of attempted downloads or installs. Many PAM solutions can then monitor these sessions, generate reports, and alert you to any suspicious activity.
By providing everyone in your company with only the amount of access to your system that they absolutely need, you can reduce the risks that come with security breaches. Additionally, this system protects the privacy of employees within your company from other employees. Sensitive personal information can be protected by limiting access to things like contact information, direct deposit information, etc.
There are several Privileged Access Management tools out there that can help you put these rules in place in your system. Limiting access can sometimes be tricky to do without frustrating your employees, but explaining the avoidance of security issues generally helps most to understand the need and benefit. Software designed specifically for PAM can help manage account permissions and monitor privileges accounts without losing productivity while preventing unwanted/unintended or rogue/malicious applications from being installed.
Read our previous post here: New Cybersecurity Threat Dubbed Double-Clickjacking
