{"id":4517,"date":"2019-08-05T14:53:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/identity-management\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2019-08-05T16:17:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T20:17:41","slug":"how-to-secure-your-enterprises-privileged-access-user-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/identity-management\/how-to-secure-your-enterprises-privileged-access-user-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Secure Your Enterprise’s Privileged Access User Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/p>\n

How can you better secure your enterprise\u2019s privileged access user accounts? Why does this matter to your overall cybersecurity and identity security<\/a>? Further, how can privileged access management help?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, technology research giant Gartner named privileged access management<\/a> one of their Top Security Project for multiple years. This shouldn\u2019t surprise any observer with an interest in enterprise identity security and cybersecurity. Unsecured privileged access user accounts attract both external hackers and insider threats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Download<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

Indeed, according to PAM solution provider Centrify, over 70% of business data breaches begin with compromised or stolen privileged credentials. Conversely, securing those accounts can truly supplement and strengthen your overall digital security posture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions work to secure those privileged access user accounts in ways legacy solutions can\u2019t. This proves vital to fulfilling both cybersecurity and industry compliance mandates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how your enterprise can work with your PAM solution to secure your privileged access user accounts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To Secure Privileged Access User Accounts, Start with Provisioning<\/b><\/h2>\n

Indeed, how can you secure your privileged access user accounts<\/a> if you don\u2019t know the permissions they possess?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every time you add a privileged account to your network, you need to carefully provision it with the right permissions. For context, provisioning refers to giving initial permissions to an employee when they first enter your workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n

With this in mind, your enterprise needs identity governance over your privileged accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why: the more permissions a single user possesses, the more damage it can do in the wrong hands. For example, if one user can access both your employee records and your financial data, hackers can use those credentials to devastating effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, your provisioning of privileged user accounts must incorporate hard limits on their access. Yet, according to privileged access solution provider, 62% of enterprises fail to provision for privileged access accounts. This neglect can only hurt your cybersecurity in the long-term.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, what might matter more is the opposite process: deprovisioning. Deprovisioning refers to removing all of the permissions from an employee\u2019s account when they leave their employ. Failing to secure this process leads to a dangerous kind of identity security hole: orphaned accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Find All Of Your Privileged Access User Accounts<\/b><\/h2>\n

Often, enterprises labor under the delusion they can handle the deprovisioning process manually, even as their network scales. This often leads to IT teams losing track of deprovisioning processes or even entire privileged access user accounts!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, according to Thycotic, 55% of businesses fail to revoke permissions after a privileged employee is removed. Meanwhile, fellow PAM provider Identity Automation found 40% of enterprises never bother to look for all of the privileged accounts on their network.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trying to rely on your IT security team to manually remove accounts at the end of their life-cycles leads to danger in the long term. Poor offboarding can leave accounts without users lingering on the network for months if not years. Additionally, the size of your network can actually conceal accounts from view. As such, those accounts become orphaned accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If your privileged access user accounts become orphaned, they become blatant cybersecurity holes in your network. Hackers can use orphaned accounts to leap-frog to even more powerful accounts or to plant dwelling threats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, to secure your privileged access user accounts, you need to work with your solution to improve visibility. You need the capabilities which can uncover any lost identities on your network. Further, a next-generation PAM solution can help you automate and provisioning and deprovisioning processes. That way, you can alleviate the burden on your team and ensure deprovisioning occurs promptly when needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, Secure Logins for Privileged Access User Accounts\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

If your enterprise still relies on passwords to secure your privileged access accounts<\/a>, stop as quickly as possible. In fact, trying to rely on passwords to secure any credentials proves a laughable security exercise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why: users change their passwords far too infrequently and often repeat them; each time they do this, they increase the risk of hackers\u2019 exploiting them. Moreover, even original passwords can prove easily guessed or cracked thanks to social media social engineering. Adding to this, if your users share their passwords, that\u2019s another layer of security danger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of relying on single-factor authentication like passwords, your enterprise needs to embrace multifactor authentication. The more factors that stand between hackers and your users\u2019 identities, the more secure they remain. Usually, hackers won\u2019t bother with strong identity perimeters; they prefer the low-hanging fruit (i.e. easy target).<\/span><\/p>\n

Strong enterprise multifactor authentication can comprise of any number of factors, but often include:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n