
PowerBroker for Networks Controls “By Your Command” on Critical Devices
Let’s introduce PowerBroker for Networks into our Cylon scenario. PowerBroker for Networks is a command line-based privileged access management solution that can control SSH and telnet sessions based on the individual commands, switches and scripts entered as input. It allows real time processing of the commands to determine what should be allowed to execute and what should be denied. It establishes the identity of the user via the initial authentication (including MFA) and then processes policy based on each command to determine if they should execute and what privileges. By your command for each and every command. For Cylons, the privileged hierarchy could now be established for subordinates or any other machines they interact with. This would allow or deny privileged access to any command line functions. For us humans today, we now have command line control of every command and can decide who can run which ones, from where, when, and the privileges required. This is huge when dealing with IoT, ICS, SCADA, and even operating systems and network infrastructure that have no privileged access or role based access paradigm to begin with. PowerBroker for Networks adds a layer of security to all of these devices to implement this security model without agents but with the granularity to accomplish the necessary controls for regulatory compliance (application control on nontraditional IT). The only science fiction analogy to this model that I can think of is Gwen on Galaxy Quest. She was the only one with privileges to talk to the computer. Everyone else had to have her relay their commands. The computer would not answer to anyone else. In our real case, PowerBroker for Networks is the only solution that should talk to your devices and privileges to process commands are now controlled, session recorded, monitored, and processed by user to ensure they are appropriate. PowerBroker for Networks is the first technology to market to perform these functions independently of resource and can work with any SSH or Telnet based device. For those science fiction fans out there, I hope this helps explain the technology and why it is so important to protect resources. If you would like to learn more (or just geek out on sci-fi), please contact us today.
Morey J. Haber, Chief Security Officer, BeyondTrust
Morey J. Haber is the Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored three books: Privileged Attack Vectors, Asset Attack Vectors, and Identity Attack Vectors. He is a founding member of the industry group Transparency in Cyber, and in 2020 was elected to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Executive Advisory Board. Morey currently oversees BeyondTrust security and governance for corporate and cloud based solutions and regularly consults for global periodicals and media. He originally joined BeyondTrust in 2012 as a part of the eEye Digital Security acquisition where he served as a Product Owner and Solutions Engineer since 2004. Prior to eEye, he was Beta Development Manager for Computer Associates, Inc. He began his career as Reliability and Maintainability Engineer for a government contractor building flight and training simulators. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.