Has your Privileged Access Management (PAM) project grown from a cute and cuddly kitten into a ferocious Tiger? Does it feel like a wild, hungry animal, eating chucks of yearly budget, yet rarely alerting you to malicious or unauthorized access? Is your PAM Tiger laying around, napping all day, and not actively patrolling network’s privileged access and alerting you? Does your PAM Tiger automatically secure your privileged access, or must you manually walk it on a leash every time?
Regardless of your level of PAM maturity or PAM tool used, there are basic automation concepts and configuration use cases that may drastically improve organizational security posture:
- Increased frequency of automated password rotation
- One-Time Passwords (OTP)
- Just-in-Time (JIT) access
- Security Around DevOps
- Least Privilege for Resources and Applications
Increased frequency of password rotation is the single best mitigator of unauthorized access [1]. One-Time Passwords (OTP), or single use passwords, may drastically increase security of privileged accounts, and limit liability of both employees and employer [2]. Just-In-Time (JIT) dynamic access provisioning/de-provisioning may evolve your organization one step closer to a Zero Trust/Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) model.
The Executive Office of the President of the United States issued an Executive Order (EO) on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity on May 12th, 2021. The order defines critical software categories, such as identity, credential, and access management (ICAM), to shape how organizations purchase and manage deployment of critical software. Critical software is defined as any software that runs with elevated privilege, manage privileges, has privileged access to networking or computing resources, or controls access to data [3].
iC Consult may help your organization comply with this new Executive Order requirement. We can tame your wild PAM project by helping you develop a customized plan to better position your organization for the next evolution of Privileged Access Management. iC Consult has industry experts around the globe to help execute that plan.
We’re proud to offer a PAM assessment starting with a compelling workshop. The assessment includes:
🔎 a review of your current privilege management,
🎯 a gap analysis in correlation with your tactical and strategic goals,
🚀 and a clear roadmap to help you achieve better PAM maturity.
👉🏻 Take your organization to the next level of PAM maturity and automation.
References
[1] Kristen Ranta-Haikal Wilson, “The Debate Around Password Rotation Policies,” SANS, Mar 9th, 2020, https://www.sans.org/blog/the-debate-around-password-rotation-policies/.
[2] Paul A. Grassi, James L. Fenton, Elaine M. Newton, Ray A. Perlner, Andrew R. Regenscheid, William E. Burr, Justin P. Richer, “NIST Special Publication 800-63B-Digital Identity Guidelines-Authentication and Lifecycle Management,” NIST, Mar 2nd, 2020, https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html.
[3] The Executive Office of the President of the United States, “Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” The White House, May 12th, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/.