What is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
Privileged Access Management, or PAM, is a cybersecurity strategy focused on securing, controlling, and monitoring the special accounts that have elevated or "privileged" access to an organization's critical systems. You can think of these accounts as the master keys that can unlock every door and access the most sensitive information.
A PAM solution is a combination of tools and security practices designed to ensure that these powerful credentials don't fall into the wrong hands, whether it’s an external hacker or a malicious insider.
What Are Privileged Accounts?
Even if you don’t see them as such, privileged accounts are everywhere in your IT environment. They're the admin credentials used by IT administrators, security teams, and can even include automated third-party applications used to manage your technology.
Common examples include:
- SuperAdmin or Admin accounts on servers and databases.
- Root accounts in Linux/Unix systems.
- Domain Administrator accounts in Windows environments.
- Application accounts with access to backend systems.
- Cloud service accounts with permissions to create or delete entire environments.
Privileged accounts are very powerful, which makes them a number one target for cyberattackers. If an attacker can compromise a single privileged account, they can move freely across your network—this is often referred to as lateral movement—to steal data, deploy ransomware, and cause widespread damage.
How Does Privileged Access Management Work?
With all this power comes great responsibility. A comprehensive PAM solution operates on four key principles to lock down your most critical access points.
- Secure and Isolate Credentials Instead of having privileged passwords stored in spreadsheets or scripts, PAM solutions store them in a highly secure, encrypted credential vault. When an administrator needs access, they check out the password from the vault, often without ever seeing it. The system automatically rotates the password after each use, making stolen credentials useless.
- Control and Limit Access PAM enforces the Principle of Least Privilege, a foundational security concept meaning users should only have the absolute minimum level of access needed to perform their job. It also enables Just-in-Time (JIT) access, where permissions are granted temporarily for a specific task and then automatically revoked. This drastically reduces the available attack surface.
- Monitor and Record Sessions PAM solutions can monitor and record all activity that occurs during a privileged session, creating an unchangeable log of every command entered and every action taken. If a security incident occurs, you will have a complete forensic record to understand exactly what happened.
- Audit and Report With detailed logs of who accessed what, when, and for how long, PAM makes it simple to generate reports for compliance audits (like for PCI DSS, HIPAA, or NERC CIP). This provides clear proof that you have robust controls in place over your most sensitive systems.
Privileged Access Management FAQ
1. Why is PAM important for cybersecurity? Privileged Access Management (PAM) is designed to directly address the primary method attackers use to escalate breaches. By controlling privileged access, you can prevent a small intrusion from turning into a catastrophic compromise, effectively preventing ransomware and data theft.
2. What's the difference between IAM and PAM? Identity and Access Management (IAM) focuses on managing the identity of all users (who you are), while Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a specialized subset of IAM that focuses on what highly trusted users can do with their elevated access. Every organization that collects or relies on data needs IAM, but organizations with a need to protect critical systems or sensitive data also need PAM.
3. Can PAM help defend against insider threats? Yes. PAM is one of the most effective tools against insider threats. By enforcing least privilege and monitoring all privileged sessions, Privileged Access Management prevents malicious employees from abusing their privileges and careless employees from making mistakes that, while unintentional, can still result in serious damage.
