PAM

Privileged access management (PAM) is a critical component of an organization's security strategy, particularly for cloud systems. It refers to the process of managing and monitoring the use of privileged accounts, which have elevated access rights and permissions that can be exploited by attackers if left unchecked. In this subpage, we will explore the history of PAM, its downfalls, and how Trustle's streamlined approach to identity and access management can provide better defenses for mission-critical systems.

The History of Privileged Access Management

PAM has its roots in traditional on-prem IT systems, where the focus was on controlling access to critical infrastructure such as servers and databases. However, with the adoption of cloud-based infrastructure and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, the number of privileged accounts has exploded, making PAM more challenging and complex.

What is Privileged Management?

Privileged access management refers to the management and control of privileged accounts and their associated access rights. This includes the identification and classification of privileged accounts, the enforcement of least privilege principles, and the monitoring of privileged activity to detect and respond to potential threats.

The Difference Between IAM and PAM

Identity and access management (IAM) refers to the broader set of policies, procedures, and technologies used to manage user identities and their access to resources across an organization's entire IT environment. PAM, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the management of privileged accounts and their associated access rights. While IAM is important for managing user access, PAM is essential for securing mission-critical systems against insider and outsider threats.

The principles of PAM include:

Principle of least privilege: limiting access rights to only what is necessary to perform job functions
Segregation of duties: separating duties to prevent conflicts of interest and reduce the risk of fraud
Continuous monitoring: detecting and responding to privileged activity in real-time
Privileged session management: controlling access to privileged accounts and recording all activity for auditing purposes

Why is PAM Important?

PAM is crucial for protecting against data breaches, insider threats, and cyber-attacks that can result in significant financial and reputational damage. A robust PAM solution helps organizations ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive information and systems, reducing the risk of malicious or accidental damage.

Trustle's approach to PAM and access management

Trustle offers a streamlined approach to identity and access management that leverages your current workflows, and drastically increases defenses for your most mission critical systems. We offer centralized management of all user accounts, access rights, and permissions across a range of cloud-based infrastructure and SaaS applications.

Trustle is a context based access control platform for companies who need to better safeguard their most important Data & Resources. By ingesting the deepest api connections across each cloud and SaaS system, we streamline your access request workflows. Then we leverage our machine learning to provide- deeper end-to-end visibility and control to each of your systems.

This allows your team to begin to make context based decisions providing compliant, automated access for the right user, to the right resource, for the right length of time.

It’s a complete, yet customizable platform that offers enhanced cybersecurity defenses and enables companies to foster secure, compliant collaboration that maximizes product development, cost savings, and ultimately, revenue.

Conclusion

In summary, privileged access management is a critical aspect of an organization's security strategy for cloud systems. Trustle’s streamlined approach to PAM can help enterprises manage their privileged accounts more effectively, reduce the risk of cyber-attacks, and improve overall security posture.