5 privileged access management (PAM) best practices

A 2022 report from Gartner¹ identified privileged access management as a leading security priority for all organisations.

Not surprising when you consider 20% of all data breaches² come from insider activity and ‘privilege creep.’

Inadequate management of user privileges and access makes your data vulnerable and puts your business at risk.

Which is why we advocate organisations follow some basic best practices when it comes to privileged access management within overall identity and access controls.

Here are five things you should be doing right now.

1. Enforce the principle of least privilege (PoLP)

Implementing PoLP means granting users access to the bare minimum of resources needed to carry out their role.

What’s more, organisations who take this granular approach to access management are closing a potentially big hole in their security posture.

Consider this: 82% of breaches³ come from human activity (be that mistake or malice).

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that users with more access than they need can become a serious risk.

By enforcing PoLP you can:

2. Monitor, review, and audit privileged accounts

According to a report from Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA), 65% of identity-related breaches came from inadequately managed or compromised privileged accounts.⁵

This is why having visibility over all access privileges is fundamental to good PAM processes and the security of your business.

Which means:

3. Implement robust authentication and password policies

According to the latest figures from Microsoft, there were 4,000 password attacks per second globally in 2023.⁶

The reality is, password protection alone is no longer enough.

They’re a notorious weak spot in cyber security posture. Too many people use passwords that can be easily hacked and compromised.

When you’re trying to control who has specific access to particular resources,  you can’t afford this level of vulnerability.

At the very least your organisation should be educating its people to apply stronger passwords (your pet’s name and 1 at the end really won’t cut it).

But even then, for best practice, we would advocate the application of multi-factor authentication (MFA).

MFA should go hand in hand with your permissions management. It introduces additional layers to your access controls, with users needing to provide an extra one or more verification factor to access resources.

Which helps:

4. Adopt a zero trust policy and mindset in the business

The idea of a zero trust mindset in identity and access security has grown in prominence over the past few years, in response to growing and more sophisticated attacks.

Its ‘never trust, always verify’ stance underpins the principles of any successful PAM strategy.

Zero trust is based upon the idea that access to sensitive resources, especially by privileged users, is tightly controlled and constantly monitored, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and data breaches.

Which means:

5. Ensure PAM is integral to your identity and access management (IAM) processes

With privileged accounts such a target for attackers, making PAM an integral part of your overall IAM framework isn’t just a case of best practice.

It’s a necessity.

Modern IAM solutions should provide the tools required to manage privileged accounts effectively and efficiently.

For instance, Microsoft Entra ID licence holders have access to a broad range of features that underpin PoLP and zero trust. Allowing organisations to easily set-up MFA and control permissions based on factors such as timeframe, job role, or other conditions (like device or location).

Plus there is Privileged Identity Manager (PIM), available in Entra ID’s P2 licence.

This helps manage, control, and monitor access to key resources across Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, and other Microsoft online services like Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Intune.

PIM features include:

As privileged accounts become increasingly targeted by bad actors, failure to adequately manage them puts your organisation at increasing risk.

This is why we recommend putting the right measures in place, underpinned by a diligent and vigilant culture across the business.

And, by ensuring you have access to the right tools within your IAM solution. So that you can enable robust privileged access management that keeps your resources secure without compromising productivity.

Key takeaways

Next steps

Sources: 1. Gartner | 2. Verizon | 3. Cyber Magazine | 4. Veritas | 5. Beyond Trust | 6 and 7. Microsoft 

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