Privileged Access Management | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

When people think of cybersecurity threats, they often picture external hackers breaking into networks. However, some of the most damaging breaches stem from within organizations. Whether through negligence or malicious intent, insiders can expose your organization to significant cybersecurity risks. According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report , 57% of companies experience over 20 insider-related security incidents a year, with human error involved in 68% of data breaches. With that, insider attacks result in the highest costs, averaging USD 4.99 million per attack, as per the 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM Security.  What are insider threats? An insider threat originates from within an organization – it's the potential for anyone with authorized access to your critical systems to misuse their access, harming your organization. The worst part is that insiders are already within your IT perimeter and are familiar with your internal security prot...

Privileged Access Management (PAM) has emerged as a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity strategies, shifting from a technical necessity to a critical pillar in leadership agendas. With the PAM market projected to reach $42.96 billion by 2037 (according to Research Nester), organizations invest heavily in PAM solutions. Why is PAM climbing the ranks of leadership priorities? While Gartner highlights key reasons such as enhanced security, regulatory compliance readiness, and insurance requirements, the impact of PAM extends across multiple strategic areas. PAM can help organizations enhance their overall operational efficiency and tackle many challenges they face today. To explore more about PAM's transformative impact on businesses, read The Cyber Guardian: PAM's Role in Shaping Leadership Agendas for 2025 by a renowned cybersecurity expert and former Gartner lead analyst Jonathan Care.  What cybersecurity challenges may organizations face in 2025? The cybersecurity landsca...

BeyondTrust has disclosed details of a critical security flaw in Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products that could potentially lead to the execution of arbitrary commands. Privileged Remote Access controls, manages, and audits privileged accounts and credentials, offering zero trust access to on-premises and cloud resources by internal, external, and third-party users. Remote Support allows service desk personnel to securely connect to remote systems and mobile devices. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12356 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as an instance of command injection. "A critical vulnerability has been discovered in Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products which can allow an unauthenticated attacker to inject commands that are run as a site user," the company said in an advisory. An attacker could exploit the flaw by sending a malicious client request, effectively leading to the execution of arbitrary...

Identity security is all the rage right now, and rightfully so. Securing identities that access an organization's resources is a sound security model. But IDs have their limits, and there are many use cases when a business should add other layers of security to a strong identity. And this is what we at SSH Communications Security want to talk about today. Let's look at seven ways to add additional security controls for critical and sensitive sessions for privileged users as a bolt-on to other systems. Bolt-on 1: Securing access for high-impact IDs Since strong ID is a key element in privileged access, our model is to natively integrate with identity and access management (IAM) solutions, like Microsoft Entra ID. We use IAM as a source for identities and permissions and make sure your organization stays up–to–date with any changes in Entra ID on identities, groups, or permissions in real-time. The native integration allows automating the joiners-movers-leavers process since if a u...

Cybercriminals know that privileged accounts are the keys to your kingdom. One compromised account can lead to stolen data, disrupted operations, and massive business losses. Even top organizations struggle to secure privileged accounts. Why? Traditional Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions often fall short, leaving: Blind spots that limit full visibility. Complex deployment processes. Manual account discovery that's time-consuming. Weak enforcement of least privilege access. Gaps that let admins bypass controls. These flaws leave critical vulnerabilities that attackers exploit daily. But it doesn't have to be this way. In our webinar, " Preventing Privilege Escalation: Effective PAS Practices for Today's Threat Landscape , " we'll show you how to secure your privileged accounts and stay ahead of threats. What you'll gain: Close Security Gaps : Learn to find and fix vulnerabilities in your privileged accounts. Actionable Insights : Discover proven PAS strategies ...

Are you using the cloud or thinking about transitioning? Undoubtedly, multi-cloud and hybrid environments offer numerous benefits for organizations. However, the cloud's flexibility, scalability, and efficiency come with significant risk — an expanded attack surface. The decentralization that comes with utilizing multi-cloud environments can also lead to limited visibility into user activity and poor access management.  Privileged accounts with access to your critical systems and sensitive data are among the most vulnerable elements in cloud setups. When mismanaged, these accounts open the doors to unauthorized access, potential malicious activity, and data breaches. That's why strong privileged access management (PAM) is indispensable. PAM plays an essential role in addressing the security challenges of complex infrastructures by enforcing strict access controls and managing the life cycle of privileged accounts. By employing PAM in hybrid and cloud environments, you're not...

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has begun revolutionizing Identity Access Management (IAM), reshaping how cybersecurity is approached in this crucial field. Leveraging AI in IAM is about tapping into its analytical capabilities to monitor access patterns and identify anomalies that could signal a potential security breach. The focus has expanded beyond merely managing human identities — now, autonomous systems, APIs, and connected devices also fall within the realm of AI-driven IAM, creating a dynamic security ecosystem that adapts and evolves in response to sophisticated cyber threats. The Role of AI and Machine Learning in IAM AI and machine learning (ML) are creating a more robust, proactive IAM system that continuously learns from the environment to enhance security. Let's explore how AI impacts key IAM components: Intelligent Monitoring and Anomaly Detection AI enables continuous monitoring of both human and non-human identities , including APIs, service acc...

In IT environments, some secrets are managed well and some fly under the radar. Here's a quick checklist of what kinds of secrets companies typically manage, including one type they should manage: Passwords [x] TLS certificates [x] Accounts [x] SSH keys ??? The secrets listed above are typically secured with privileged access management (PAM) solutions or similar. Yet, most traditional PAM vendors hardly talk about SSH key management. The reason is simple: they don't have the technology to do it properly.  We can prove it. All our SSH key management customers have had a traditional PAM deployed, but they realized that they couldn't manage SSH keys with it. At best, traditional PAMs can discover, let alone manage, 20% of all keys. So, what's the fuss about SSH keys? SSH keys are access credentials in the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. In many ways, they're just like passwords but functionally different. On top of that, keys tend to outnumber passwords, especially in long-st...

Until just a couple of years ago, only a handful of IAM pros knew what service accounts are. In the last years, these silent Non-Human-Identities (NHI) accounts have become one of the most targeted and compromised attack surfaces . Assessments report that compromised service accounts play a key role in lateral movement in over 70% of ransomware attacks. However, there's an alarming disproportion between service accounts' compromise exposure and potential impact, and the available security measures to mitigate this risk.  In this article, we explore what makes service accounts such a lucrative target, why they are beyond the scope of most security control, and how the new approach of unified identity security can prevent service accounts from compromise and abuse .  Active Directory Service accounts 101: Non-human identities used for M2M In an Active Directory (AD) environment , service accounts are user accounts that are not associated with human beings but are used for ma...

To minimize the risk of privilege misuse, a trend in the privileged access management (PAM) solution market involves implementing just-in-time (JIT) privileged access. This approach to  privileged identity management  aims to mitigate the risks associated with prolonged high-level access by granting privileges temporarily and only when necessary, rather than providing users with continuous high-level privileges. By adopting this strategy, organizations can enhance security, minimize the window of opportunity for potential attackers and ensure that users access privileged resources only when necessary.  What is JIT and why is it important?   JIT privileged access provisioning  involves granting privileged access to users on a temporary basis, aligning with the concept of least privilege. This principle provides users with only the minimum level of access required to perform their tasks, and only for the amount of time required to do so. One of the key advanta...

As cyber threats loom around every corner and privileged accounts become prime targets, the significance of implementing a robust  Privileged Access Management (PAM)  solution can't be overstated. With organizations increasingly migrating to cloud environments, the PAM Solution Market is experiencing a transformative shift toward cloud-based offerings. One Identity PAM Essentials stands out among these as a SaaS-based PAM solution that prioritizes security, manageability, and compliance. Security-first, user-centric design   PAM Essentials boasts a user-centric and security-first design – not only prioritizing the protection of critical assets, but also ensuring a seamless user experience. By providing privileged sessions and  access controls , PAM Essentials mitigates the heightened risks associated with unauthorized users, safeguarding critical data against potential breaches. Designed for ease of use, it ensures that robust security does not come at the expense...