The Security Sector To Watch: Privileged Account Management
Over the past decade, there have been several advancements in the realm of IT and software applications. However, cyber security or the business of keeping applications and networks safe, has steadily lagged behind.
Cyber threats have evolved beyond their humble beginnings as disruption and publicity stunts. As companies and organizations continue to digitize their assets, hackers are targeting financial gain with more and more at stake. As a result, cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and pervasive. There is no denying the importance of cybersecurity in this market. Within a few decades, the industry has grown to a whopping $55 billion, crowning a select number of billion-dollar security giants along the way. As well as being extremely fast-growing, security is also constantly changing as it catches up with advancements in IT and application technology. One of the most interesting trends within cyber security is the rise of privileged account management (PAM) and how it grows in tandem with the decline of the traditional method by which network security is administered, the perimeter.
The State of Privileged Account Management:
Privileged account management is a layer of IT security that serves to protect organizations from cyber-attacks that have already penetrated the network perimeter. Essentially, once a hacker has broken into a company’s network, the next goal is to gain access to higher and higher privileged accounts. Higher accounts have greater access to a company’s data.
Traditionally, enterprises focused the majority of their security efforts towards protecting the perimeter and barring threats from penetrating the network to begin with. However, cyber attackers have full power to wreak havoc upon breaching the initial network firewall. It is no longer enough for enterprises to solely keep attackers off their networks. The most damaging cyber attacks occur when privileged account credentials are compromised, allowing foreign attackers to have the same level and breadth of access as any admin or internal member of a company.
This graphic published by CyberArk, a leading PAM provider, illustrates the sheer level of access given to privileged accounts.
Notable cyber attacks on Target’s credit card database and JP Morgan’s client information database were both carried out through privileged accounts, bringing more and more publicity to this greenfield sector. Due to the increasing sophistication and pervasiveness of cyber-attacks, traditional cybersecurity methods need a comprehensive approach to securing privileged accounts.
The Decline of the Perimeter:
The rise of PAM comes in tandem with the decline of traditional perimeter security. A large segment of IT spending is on perimeter security that forms a secure perimeter around a corporate network. This includes the nearly $8bn network firewall market, led by large players like Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) and FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE). Although perimeter security has played a large role in many current security strategies, there are a few problem areas with this approach.
1. Big Data and the Cloud
With the increasing adoption of cloud computing, mobile, social networking, and IoT, it has become more and more difficult to properly define the boundaries of a corporate network. Traditionally, data flowed through one network provided by a company, so it was predictable and controlled. Now, the perimeter is drawn by the identity of the person accessing the device. Attackers are targeting the person at the keyboard. Employees or “Insiders” can easily bring mobile devices and social network profiles on and off premises. A significant portion of enterprise data is no longer confined to the boundaries of a secured network.
On top of this, as companies compile greater amounts of data, the sheer size of networks has multiplied, driving more complex architectures and a further blurred perimeter.
2. Internal Threats
The outside of a perimeter is heavily secured with current solutions on the market, but the internal components of a network are still left unprotected. Using stolen credentials to impersonate an internal account is becoming a popular method of cyber breaches with high-profile breaches of J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) both attributable to privileged account impersonations.
Takeaways
As cyber-attacks grow in intensity and comprehensiveness, companies are recognizing that traditional perimeter security solutions are not enough to protect against advanced threats. As a result, companies are investing more and more into internal security within the datacenter to protect the inside of their networks. Privileged account management is poised to become one of the most significant areas of spending within cybersecurity in the next few years.
