Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Why do you need Privillaged Admin Access Why Privileged Access Management (PAM) is Critical for Your Business Why do you need Privillaged Admin Access

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, securing your business’s IT infrastructure is more important than ever. One of the biggest risks organizations face is the misuse or compromise of privileged accounts – those with the highest level of access within a network. If these accounts are exposed or misused, the consequences can be severe, ranging from data breaches to operational disruptions and regulatory penalties.

Understanding Privileged Access and Its Risks

Privileged accounts include administrators, IT personnel, and any user with elevated permissions who can install software, modify systems, or access sensitive data. Without effective management, these accounts can become a significant security risk due to:

• Unauthorized Access: Privileged accounts often have access to the most sensitive systems and data, making them a prime target for cybercriminals.
• Human Error: Mistakes made by those with privileged access can have a more profound impact, potentially compromising your entire network.
• Insider Threats: Malicious insiders or disgruntled employees with privileged access can cause irreversible damage to your organization.

How PAM and JIT Minimize Risks

To mitigate these risks, we are introducing Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Just-In-Time (JIT) Access controls. These solutions work together to provide robust protection by ensuring that privileged access is only granted when absolutely necessary.

Key Benefits of PAM and JIT

1. Reduced Attack Surface: PAM helps eliminate unnecessary access by ensuring that privileged accounts are only active when required. When not in use, these accounts are deactivated, reducing the chance of misuse.
2. Granular Control: JIT access ensures that users only have the permissions they need for the specific time they need them, preventing long-term access to sensitive areas.
3. Enhanced Monitoring and Auditing: PAM provides visibility into who is accessing what and when allowing for real-time monitoring and detailed audit trails to quickly identify and respond to suspicious activities.
4. Compliance and Governance: PAM and JIT help your organization comply with industry standards and regulations by enforcing strict access policies and reducing the likelihood of privileged account abuse.
5. Automatic approval of company-approved applications. You can save time by having Mear Technology provide automatic approval to applications. For Example, Sage Accounts updates. never call the helpdesk again when you to do an update. Users can update automatically.

Why We’re Implementing This Change

To better protect your business, we are proactively implementing PAM and JIT access controls as part of our ongoing commitment to delivering secure and reliable IT services. This change will help reduce the risk of unauthorized access, protect sensitive information, and ensure that your organization is prepared to meet the latest security challenges.

What’s Next?

Starting 1st November 2024, the new PAM service will be automatically deployed across all client accounts. As part of this rollout, we will also remove local admin access for standard users to enhance the security posture of your IT environment. This initiative will be applied as an opt-out service and will include a minor cost increase of £1.00 per device per month. We will provide the first month Free of charge. This means that your recurring invoice will not be invoiced for the period 01/11/2024 – 30/11/2024. Your first billing period will be in December.

For more details or if you have any questions about this change, please contact our support team via our normal helpdesk or call us on 01506 668 613.

If you wish to opt-out please contact the helpdesk or click the opt-out button below.

FAQ

Opt-out Can a member of my team authorize Admin Elevation? Does this apply to PC and MAC Can I opt out once you have rolled it out? What will happen when you roll out? We want to whitelist certain applications so our staff can install them, update them or run as Admin can we do this? Section 3