Have you ever encountered the term Privileged Account and wondered what it truly means? In this blog, we’ll discuss this crucial cybersecurity topic.
Certain accounts have higher access to critical systems and data than others in any organization. These accounts are known as privileged accounts, and cybercriminals often target them because of their power. In the wrong hands, a privileged account can wreak havoc on an organization, causing massive financial losses and irreparable damage to its reputation.
It is essential to understand what privileged accounts are, how they work, and the risks they pose to your organization. This blog will provide you with a comprehensive overview of privileged accounts, including their definition, types, and typical use cases. We’ll also discuss the common vulnerabilities associated with privileged accounts, the best management practices, and the tools and technologies available to secure them. By the end of this blog, you will have a solid understanding of privileged accounts and be better equipped to protect your organization against cyber threats.
What Does a Privileged Account Mean?
Privileged accounts are user accounts in an organization’s network or system with elevated access privileges to perform certain functions or access sensitive data. These accounts have more privileges and permissions than regular user accounts, making them more powerful and valuable to attackers. Privileged accounts can include system administrators, domain administrators, service accounts, application administrators, database administrators, and other personnel with access to critical systems, data, or infrastructure.
Privileged accounts are critical to an organization because they are necessary for carrying out essential IT functions, such as system maintenance, configuration changes, and software updates. Without these accounts, an organization’s systems and infrastructure could not function properly.
Types of Privileged Accounts
System Admins
System administrator accounts are privileged accounts that provide IT personnel with the elevated access rights necessary to manage and maintain an organization’s computer systems and network infrastructure. These accounts allow system administrators to perform essential functions such as installing software, configuring settings, and monitoring system performance.
These accounts are crucial to the overall functioning and security of an organization’s IT infrastructure. System administrators are responsible for ensuring that an organization’s computer systems and networks operate efficiently, securely, and with minimal downtime. In addition, they play a vital role in maintaining data integrity, protecting against cyber threats, and ensuring that critical business functions are not interrupted by technical issues.
Domain Admins
Domain administrator accounts provide IT personnel with the highest access privileges to manage an organization’s Active Directory (AD) domain. Active Directory is a service that manages the authentication and authorization of users, computers, and other resources in a Windows network environment. Domain administrator accounts have the authority to create and modify user accounts, manage group policies, manage domain controllers, and perform other critical functions related to Active Directory.
The role of domain administrator accounts is essential to the overall functioning and security of an organization’s Windows-based network environment.
Privileged Users
Privileged User accounts provide IT department users with elevated access privileges beyond what is granted to standard user accounts. These accounts are typically reserved for individuals who must perform certain administrative or management functions within an organization’s IT infrastructure.
Service Accounts
Service Accounts are used by applications and services that run on a computer or server. These accounts provide applications and services with the necessary access privileges to perform specific tasks on the system.
Domain Service Accounts
Domain Service Accounts are similar to Service Accounts but focused on applications and services that run on a Windows-based network environment. These accounts are typically used to provide applications and services with the necessary elevated access privileges to perform specific tasks on the network.
Application Accounts
Application Accounts are an account applications use to access data and perform specific functions on behalf of users or other applications. These accounts are created and managed within an application and are designed to provide specific access to the resources and data required by the application.
Emergency Accounts
Emergency Accounts are privileged accounts used when regular account access is unavailable or compromised. These accounts are designed to provide IT personnel with temporary access to critical systems or data in case of a system failure, security breach, or other emergencies.
The role of Emergency Accounts is important to organizations for several reasons:
- Business continuity: Emergency Accounts are critical to maintaining business continuity in case of a system failure or security breach. By providing IT personnel with temporary access to critical systems or data, Emergency Accounts can help to minimize downtime and ensure that the organization can continue to operate during an emergency.
- Security: These accounts are designed to be used only in an emergency and are subject to strict access controls and monitoring. By limiting access to Emergency Accounts and tracking their use, organizations can minimize the risk of unauthorized access and ensure that critical systems and data remain secure.
- Compliance: Many regulatory standards require organizations to have a plan to manage emergency access to critical systems and data. By implementing Emergency Accounts, organizations can demonstrate that they have a plan to maintain access to critical resources during an emergency and remain in compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Accountability: Emergency Accounts are subject to strict accountability measures, including access logs and audit trails. By tracking the use of Emergency Accounts, organizations can identify potential security threats and address them proactively.
- Limited use: These accounts are designed to have a limited lifespan. By limiting the use of Emergency Accounts, organizations can minimize the risk of abuse and ensure they are used only when necessary.
How to Monitor and Manage Your Privileged Accounts
Effective management of privileged accounts is critical to protect an organization’s assets and preventing cyber attacks. By properly monitoring and managing privileged accounts, organizations can:
- Mitigate the risk of insider threats: Privileged accounts can be misused intentionally or unintentionally by insiders who have access to sensitive systems and data. By managing and monitoring these accounts, organizations can reduce the risk of insider threats and detect and respond to any abnormal activity.
- Reduce the risk of external cyber attacks: Attackers often target privileged accounts to gain access to an organization’s critical systems and data. Organizations can reduce the risk of successful cyber attacks by implementing strong access controls and regularly auditing privileged accounts.
- Ensure compliance with regulations and industry standards: Many regulations and industry standards require organizations to have strong controls in place for privileged accounts.
In summary, privileged accounts are an essential part of an organization’s IT infrastructure but pose a significant risk. Therefore, effective management of privileged accounts is essential to prevent cyber attacks and protect an organization’s critical assets.
How Can HelloID from Tools4ever Help?
HelloID is a cloud-based identity and access management platform that can help organizations monitor and manage their privileged accounts. There are several benefits of using HelloID to monitor and manage privileged accounts:
- Centralized management: HelloID provides a centralized platform for managing user account onboarding and offboarding process, making it easy to control and monitor access to sensitive systems and data.
- Role-based access control: HelloID supports role-based access control (RBAC), which enables organizations to define specific permissions and access levels for different types of users. This ensures that users only have access to the resources they need to perform their job functions.
- Workflow automation: HelloID provides tools to automate workflows related to privileged accounts, such as access requests, approval workflows, and automated deprovisioning. This helps to reduce the administrative burden associated with managing privileged access.
- Strong authentication: HelloID supports multifactor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO), providing an additional security layer for privileged accounts. MFA helps prevent unauthorized access, while SSO simplifies access management and reduces the risk of password-related security incidents.
- Auditing and reporting: HelloID provides comprehensive auditing and reporting capabilities, which enable organizations to track and review activity related to privileged accounts. This helps to identify potential security threats and address them proactively.
- Compliance: HelloID can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements related to privileged access, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOX. The platform provides a range of security features and audit trails that can help organizations meet their compliance obligations.
In summary, HelloID provides a powerful set of tools for monitoring and managing privileged accounts. HelloID can help organizations improve their security posture, reduce risk, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements by centralizing privileged access management, automating workflows, and providing strong authentication and auditing capabilities. If you’re ready to see how Tools4Ever can help you monitor and manage your privileged accounts more effectively, book a free HelloID demo or contact us for more information about our enterprise IAM solutions.