Navigating the Cultural Shift in Privileged Access Management (PAM)

June 1, 2024

Increasing machine identities, employee churn and the shift to hybrid or distributed workforces have made identity security a mission-critical cybersecurity component. Increasingly sophisticated social engineering, phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks to gain unauthorized access to sensitive business data have further exacerbated enterprise cybersecurity demands.

Without clear identity management and privileged access management (PAM) cybersecurity solutions in place, your IT security team cannot de-provision inactive user IDs quickly enough. As a result, you risk exposing sensitive information via these vulnerable IDs.

The Culture of PAM in 2024

As part of your identity and access management (IAM) program, you need to implement the best practices for privileged access management. A robust PAM cybersecurity strategy and solution will help you sift important user IDs from the growing number of machine, inactive and suspicious user identities.

It is evident that greater cloud adoption causes the proliferation of machine identities and precipitates the need to manage these identities through an identity and access management solution.

However, it is equally important not to overlook the constantly changing roles of people within an organization. This is where PAM becomes crucial, as it is essential to continually review users’ access to systems, directories and files.

Industry leaders are currently reevaluating PAM as we know it. This is no longer just an IT problem to solve, as every member of an organization must work together to ensure that users can access the right information at the right time and place – and nothing beyond that.

As compliance requirements from federal regulations and cyber insurance providers continue to evolve, businesses can no longer afford to have laissez-faire attitudes to privileged access. Whereas many organizations have traditionally treated PAM and much of identity security as checkbox compliance measures, now is the time to develop a more strategic approach. By centralizing PAM within a cybersecurity strategy, companies can demonstrably enhance their risk posture.

Reevaluating Privileged Accounts

Privileged accounts offer your most trusted employees a wide set of access rights to accomplish important business workflows. However, these same privileged accounts also present the greatest risk of leaking sensitive business information.

It is no secret that privilege escalation is a popular, tried-and-true tactic leveraged by threat actors. With the popularization of remote access has come the rise of cyberattacks resulting from privilege escalation vulnerabilities. These critical flaws, such as the infamous “Dirty Pipe” vulnerability (CVE-2022-0847) inadvertently allow malicious actors to escalate privileges all the way to the root level and modify or rewrite files – even if the files do not contain write permissions.

Because cyber adversaries can escalate privileges so quickly and easily, as well as cause such widespread damage, privilege escalation vulnerabilities often earn high CVSS scores of 7.0 and above. By exploiting such vulnerabilities, malicious actors can perform arbitrary code executions with root privileges — opening the door to undesired process changes, data theft, ransomware attacks and more.

Threats resulting from privilege escalation vulnerabilities are only going to become worse. Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) networks capitalize on unpatched systems and software vulnerabilities to transform cyberattacks into larger organized crime efforts. PAM is therefore a crucial business imperative.

Drivers for PAM

Implementing the best practices for PAM reduces the attack surface of your organization. In addition to this, many compliance laws and cyber insurance companies also require a PAM cybersecurity solution.

As noted earlier, a remote and hybrid workforce also contributes to an increase in potential threats such as ransomware attacks. According to the OpenText Cybersecurity 2023 Global Ransomware Survey, 46% of surveyed small and medium businesses (SMBs) experienced a ransomware attack in 2023. Such attacks are especially concerning for SMBs, as a ransomware or extortion threat could result in severe reputational damage and/or an inability to conduct normal business operations without paying a ransom. SMBs often have the most to lose from a cyberattack, and therefore investment in PAM solutions is particularly valuable for them.

Download Optiv’s field guide to learn more about what you should look for in a PAM program.

Today’s Real-World PAM Challenges

Legacy business infrastructure, apps and workflows followed by backward-looking piecemeal compliance requirements deter the adoption of a modern PAM cybersecurity solution.

Businesses may have complexities within their environment that prove difficult to navigate when seeking to manage and track privileged accounts. There is a common perception that traditional PAM models impede the user experience or workflows. These issues can lead to slower PAM cybersecurity solution adoption or rollout. Frustrations continue to grow when widening IT security skill gaps make it more time-consuming and costly for employees to master the ability to rotate, manage and secure privileged accounts.

It can also be difficult for organizations to keep up with regulatory requirements and patch updates as they struggle to maintain compliance.

Both these challenges indicate why having the right technology, expertise and strategy to integrate technology into your environment correctly is important — not just set it and forget it.

See how Optiv helped a large energy supplier successfully implement a PAM solution.

The Future of PAM

Modern organizations must replace their traditional compliance checkbox methodology with a more strategic, forward-thinking view that sees PAM as a central component of a cyber risk program. There are expanding use cases for PAM adoption, including the popularity of cloud migrations and digital transformations, as well as third-party and application integrations.

Additionally, as businesses continue to explore secrets management and streamline CI/CD pipelines, PAM will only become more essential for managing complex permissions and reducing the risks caused by shadow IT.

Emerging attack vectors further strengthen the value proposition of PAM solutions to remove vendor access, enhance visibility and analytics, facilitate identity lifecycle management and update workforce password management controls.

While many organizations are on board with PAM, we are now at the point where PAM should be more cohesively woven into every aspect of an organization. Businesses should view PAM as a continuous, expert-driven journey that requires the support and collaboration of every department.

Contact Optiv to find the best PAM solution that helps your team save time, ensure compliance and improve ROI.