Manage privileged access to systems for better security
Growing risk
Cyber-security threats are increasing both in sophistication and volume, putting at risk highly valuable and confidential information, including intellectual property, customer information and financial data. In more than 85 percent of cases, security breaches involve privileged credentials – the user accounts and associated passwords employed by IT administrators and other authorised personnel to manage corporate digital assets.
Privileged credentials represent “the keys to the kingdom”, giving whoever has them more rights and permissions than a standard business user, and making them frequently targeted by both external cyber-criminals and malicious insiders.
Taking shortcuts
Although data breaches can cost millions – particularly in the age of GDPR – and Privileged Access Management (PAM) has been the number one project for CISOs in recent years, many organisations are still using paper or spreadsheets to managed privileged credentials. This approach not only represents a security risk, it also makes PAM difficult and time-consuming.
To save time and effort, IT administrators may choose to disregard corporate policies on password strength and rotation, and may share credentials with each other. For the sake of convenience, they may also ignore the principle of least-privilege, instead using root passwords for administration tasks that really only require a lower level of privilege.
If your organisation lacks insight into the management and use of privileged credentials, you run a much higher risk of experiencing damaging security breaches.
Gain a clear view
If you don’t know how many privileged accounts you have, how they are managed, and whether they are secure, you’re certainly not alone. Surveys suggest that 55 percent of organisations lack this critical information, and that more than half of privileged accounts never expire or get deprovisioned.
The complexity and sprawl of the typical IT infrastructure – spanning both on-premises and cloud – has led to the proliferation of privileged accounts. Every time a virtual machine is cloned or a snapshot is restored, new accounts may be created, potentially with default or otherwise simplistic credentials, enlarging the attack surface.
To regain control, you need a centralised solution that can discover, secure and manage privileged accounts throughout your organisation. Critically, you need a solution that combines security with usability and convenience.
Fast, comprehensive solution
IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault (formerly IBM Security Secret Server) empowers organisations to ensure that the right people are accessing the right systems for the right reasons. Acting as a gateway to connect authorised users with the digital resources they are permitted to use, the solution protects privileged accounts from hackers and insider threats, helps ensure regulatory compliance, and enhances user productivity by making secure access simple.
Building on more than three decades of experience in managing and protecting business systems for blue-chip companies, Northdoor designs and deploys full PAM solutions based on IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault. We help companies like yours get up and running within just three days, improving your security posture while minimising complexity.
IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault (formerly IBM Secret Server) provides a structured and intuitive toolset to:
- Discover privileged accounts, onboard them, and run automated policy-driven processes to ensure you stay in control
- Manage and audit your PAM environment, deploying workflows for obtaining privileged access, securely storing passwords and SSH keys in a heavily encrypted password vault, and automatically enforcing password policies
- Monitor and control privileged access, recording user sessions to understand when, how and why accounts are used, and maintaining full and secure audit logs
- Secure and protect your IT landscape, preventing unauthorised use of privileged accounts, enforcing least-privilege policies on endpoints, and providing session launchers with embedded credentials so that authorised users can access connected systems without ever seeing the password.
By enabling the automation of consistent, repeatable processes to manage privileged user access, the Northdoor and IBM solution makes PAM simple, scalable and cost-effective.
Take the next step
IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault (formerly IBM Security Secret Server) from Northdoor can be deployed on-premises or on the Microsoft Azure cloud, and works across your entire hybrid infrastructure to secure and manage all types of privileged accounts. The solution provides intelligent workflows to ease administration and uses smart analytics to create baselines of usual user behaviour that can be monitored to detect when an account may have been compromised.
To enhance your security posture while minimising the complexity for your IT administrators, contact Northdoor for a free consultation and trial on how IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault could transform your PAM capabilities.
With IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault you’ll be able to secure passwords, protect endpoints and control access. Contact Northdoor to learn more about IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault:
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