Privileged Access Management Definition

We refer to Priviledged Access Management (or PAM) as that cybersecurity strategy that aims at controlling access over accounts, processes, and systems in a specific network environment. Priviledged Access Management’s main focus is to secure exert control over the activities of privileged accounts and users while also monitoring the processes to ensure overall security.

Priviledged Access Management is considered to be a subset of Identity Access Management (also known as IAM) and it allows organizations to have a greater degree of control over the policies for priviledged access. Through Priviledged Access Management, only those users and accounts that have the required permissions are able to access the data and information in a specific protected system.

Priviledged Access Management is particularly important when it comes to compliance, since greater control over the system is very helpful when trying to meet the compliance requirements in highly regulated industries such as banking or healthcare. This happens because there isn’t just a greater degree of control, but also more visibility and monitoring capabilities, as well as much better auditability.

Some of the most common tools that make a Priviledged Access Management strategy successful include shared password management systems, vendor privilege access management, and privileged session management tools.