Cloud-Based Privilege Management: Securing Credentials & Access

As 2020 winds down and we reflect on the state of cybersecurity, we know that organizations are accelerating digital transformation projects to adjust to the next “normal”, remain competitive, and mitigate cyberattacks, which continue to increase and evolve.

For decades now we have been advocating for locking down access to privileged credentials. Securing the proverbial keys to the IT kingdom, while still managing privileged access and preserving productivity has been our mantra. But now more than ever, organizations must protect their most valuable assets and mitigate the risks associated with privileged credential misuse or theft.

According to Gartner, “the explosion of cloud services has driven proliferation of privileged accounts and credentials to a state that, for most organizations, is unmanageable without processes and tools.”

As you consider your security projects in 2021 and beyond, here are some compelling reasons to accelerate your PAM projects and improve your security posture:

1. Privileged Access Management continues to be a top security concern

As has been the trend in the past few years, 2020 has seen an explosion in the number and types of privileges arising from all types of identities (human, machines, applications) in part due to the COVID 19 pandemic and the accelerated move to a remote workforce. This explosion in privileges gives bad actors more opportunities than before to compromise an environment and attempt to exfiltrate data or affect operations. Organizations continue to seek solutions to help them mitigate the risk of breaches as insider threats also continue to grow.

2. Humans, machines, and applications possess high levels of privileged access

Privileged access goes beyond IT superusers and cloud administrators. Developers, HR, Finance, and Sales leaders possess sensitive information about different areas of operation in the organization. Machines and applications also require privileged access to run important tasks. For example, security software such as SIEM and RPA tools, Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) applications, service accounts, application servers, CI/CD tools and others all require privileges to perform tasks and they vastly outnumber the number of human users in the organization. This increasing privilege landscape is a challenge for security teams which struggle to manage accounts and change credentials to maintain an adequate level of security.

3. Managing infrastructure is no longer an obstacle

As the cybersecurity skills gap widens, security teams scramble to find and deploy solutions that minimize the need for additional staff to manage infrastructure. Organizations can now implement cloud-based PAM solutions that remove the infrastructure management barrier and enable your teams to focus on core competencies and strengthening your cybersecurity posture.

4. Now you can get up and running quicker and make your budget go further

With no infrastructure to manage, you can now get up and running quickly to speed up your time to value. You can benefit from enterprise-level high availability with minimal investment and automatic and seamless platform updates, leaving you in control of managing your privileged accounts, not the software.

BeyondTrust is your strongest ally in the PAM journey

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With the recent release of Password Safe 7.2, BeyondTrust has expanded our cloud PAM deployment options. Our industry-leading Password Safe solution is now available both on-premises (physical or virtual appliance) and cloud (SaaS or IaaS). Password Safe Cloud is not a new product, it is simply a new deployment model of Password Safe, with all the same features and capabilities of the on-premise version.

Deploying Password Safe Cloud reduces the burden of managing underlying infrastructure, such as the appliances and the backend database, to save time and management effort. Password Safe Cloud enables you to get up and running quickly and begin to realize benefits in days, accelerating time-to-value. With cloud-based delivery of Password Safe, organizations can leverage enterprise-class scalability and performance, regardless of the organization’s size.

Password Safe joins a strong cloud-based privileged access management portfolio, including Endpoint Privilege Management and Secure Remote Access solutions, that, when deployed together, enable visibility and control over all privileged accounts and users—both human and machine.

BeyondTrust’s Endpoint Privilege Management solution enables organizations to achieve least privilege on Day 1. The solutions stop malicious attacks, including malware and ransomware, by assigning just-in-time privileges and controlling applications on Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux, and networked devices - all without hindering end-user productivity. The solution also enables organizations to bridge the gap between Windows and other operating systems by extending Active Directory’s Kerberos authentication and single sign-on (SSO).

BeyondTrust’s Secure Remote Access solutions enable organizations to secure, manage, and audit vendor and internal remote privileged access without a VPN. The solutions also empowers the service desk to support Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, network devices, and peripherals with one, secure Remote Support tool.

As the PAM technology leader, BeyondTrust offers a holistic approach to securing every privileged user, session, and endpoint. This Universal Privilege Management model is an expansive approach to securing your entire universe of privileges along a journey that allows you to quickly address your biggest risk areas and immediately shrink your attack surface.

Learn more about our market-leading portfolio of cloud-based offerings to begin or build upon your PAM project and secure your most valuable assets.