10 Privileged Access Management Best Practices

Privileged access management (PAM) is the cornerstone of data security and operational efficiency. A well-structured PAM strategy not only reduces the risk of security threats but also enhances IT processes and productivity in an organization. However, implementing an effective  PAM strategy requires a comprehensive approach. 

In this article, we’ll explore ten essential privileged access management best practices to help you enhance your security, streamline access controls, and achieve IT compliance.

Why is PAM important?

Privileged accounts are often involved in security incidents, with or without malicious intent. A user with elevated access rights can cause an incident unintentionally by neglecting cybersecurity rules — for example, visiting shady web resources or downloading suspicious files.

Privileged access management is a set of tools, techniques, and practices that allow organizations to minimize security risks stemming from users and accounts with elevated access rights.

“Because privileged access can create, modify and delete IT infrastructure, along with company data contained in that infrastructure, it presents catastrophic risk. Managing privileged access is thus a critical security function for every organization.”

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management (subscription required)

Employing PAM best practices and tools in your organization can streamline elevated access permission controls by allowing you to:

• Discover privileged accounts
• Manage privileged user credentials
• Authorize privileged users
• Control access to privileged accounts
• Monitor and audit privileged access sessions

In addition to centralizing privileged account management, PAM can bring a lot of other benefits to organizations. Let’s now take a closer look at some of those advantages.

Benefits of privileged access management

• Reduced risk of data leaks — Enforcing strict access controls and privileged session monitoring can help you detect leaks and even prevent accidental exposure of sensitive data.
• Data protection against inside and outside threats — By implementing best practices for PAM, you can safeguard your most critical organizational assets against external attacks or privilege misuse by your employees and vendors.
• Minimized costs and damages from security breaches — Establishing a well-thought-out PAM process can help you limit the impact of cybersecurity incidents by allowing you to respond and act promptly, thus reducing financial and reputational harm.
• Compliance with cybersecurity requirements — By thoroughly controlling privileged access, you simplify compliance with regulations, laws, and standards like the GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS by limiting users’ access to sensitive data.
• Productive and streamlined operations of IT administrators — Automating access provisioning reduces administrative overhead and human error with centralized access control and automated privileged access management.

Alongside these benefits, the increasing need for organizations to manage privileged access is driving the rapid development of the PAM software market. According to Research Nester, the market for PAM was valued at $3.49 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $42.96 billion by 2037.

Implementing truly effective PAM in your organization may not be easy. However, using these proven best practices for privileged access management can make this process smoother.

10 privileged access management best practices

Below, we explore key PAM best practices that can help you manage and secure privileged access to organizational resources, boosting your cybersecurity defenses.

1. Inventory privileged accounts

Without knowing the number and location of privileged accounts within your network, you leave backdoors that insiders or external actors may use to bypass security controls.

Effective privileged access management requires awareness of all accounts with elevated access within your organization’s IT environment. Regular discovery and onboarding of privileged accounts provides visibility and control over the potential security risks these accounts can present.

Catalog and map all privileged accounts and the permissions they have, within what resources, and who uses them and how. Maintaining a thorough and up-to-date inventory of privileged accounts can help you reduce the risk of security breaches.

2. Choose the right access control model

When establishing access control in your organization, there are several proven models to consider. Two such options are mandatory access control (MAC) and discretionary access control (DAC). While MAC involves providing access by a software system based on data confidentiality and user clearance levels, in DAC, users’ or groups’ access permissions are defined by data owners.

You may also consider role-based access control (RBAC), which involves assigning relevant privileges to user roles, or attribute-based access control (ABAC), which controls access based on user and resource attributes. 

Before choosing a model, learn about its advantages and limitations and check whether it aligns with your organization’s size, structure, and cybersecurity needs.

3. Manage employee passwords

Passwords are a primary line of defense against cybersecurity threats. Strict policies on password use can help you minimize the risk of privileged accounts being misused or compromised. 

Develop password policies that require users to use complex passwords, including a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters. Prohibit using default, common, and easily guessable passwords. Require employees to update passwords regularly and prohibit reusing passwords.

A password management solution can help you control corporate account passwords, ensuring consistent policy enforcement and enhanced security.

4. Implement multi-factor authentication

Passwords alone may not be sufficient to prevent attackers from gaining access to privileged corporate accounts. Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of security to protect your organization’s sensitive data and critical systems.

MFA requires users to provide more than one authentication factor to verify their identity before granting access to resources. Even if a password is stolen or compromised, the attacker will not be able to access the account without additional authentication factors.

Making MFA mandatory for each user can help you implement the zero-trust approach that operates on the principle “never trust, always verify” and is one of the most effective approaches for enhancing cybersecurity.

5. Grant the lowest privileges possible

The principle of least privilege asserts that organizations should grant users only the minimum access rights needed to perform their specific responsibilities. Minimizing user privileges across the organization reduces the attack surface and lowers overall cybersecurity risk. 

Since users can only access the resources essential for their jobs, risks associated with privilege misuse are diminished. This helps limit attacks from both inside and outside the organization.

6. Provide temporary privileged access

According to the just-in-time privileged access management (JIT PAM) approach, a privileged user should have a valid reason to access a sensitive resource and the duration of access should be limited. This ensures that a user is provided with enough time to work with the resource without getting permanent access to it. JIT PAM helps you ensure that there is zero standing access within your organization.

Develop a policy that describes which users can access specific resources and under which conditions, and establish mechanisms to request, provide, and revoke access to these resources. 

7. Regularly review privileged access rights

As employees change roles or responsibilities, their access also needs modification. Revoke departing employees’ access permissions as soon as they leave the organization. By removing unnecessary access rights, your organization can minimize the potential damage in case a user’s account is compromised.

Regularly reviewing privileged access rights ensures that users retain only the necessary permissions to perform their current job functions. It also helps lower the risk of privilege creep, where users accumulate unnecessary access rights over time, thus creating potential security vulnerabilities in your organization.

8. Secure shared accounts

Shared accounts are those with multiple individuals using the same login credentials to access systems and resources. They foster a lack of accountability since it can be difficult to trace actions back to a specific user of a shared account.

Centralizing the use of shared accounts with password managers, which provide the ability to check in and check out passwords, can secure shared privileged accounts and ensure individual accountability. Recording users’ activity in shared privileged accounts is also critical.

9. Monitor privileged user activity

Overseeing privileged user activity is essential for both cybersecurity and compliance. Continuously monitoring and recording the activity of privileged users allows you to identify potential threats and stop them before they can damage your organization. 

Reviewing or watching privileged user sessions in real time or as a recording can help you understand if your employees and vendors handle sensitive data responsibly and follow your information security policies.

In the event of a security breach, privileged session recordings help digital forensics teams identify the root cause of the incident and determine what cybersecurity measures can be improved to prevent similar cases in the future.

10. Educate employees

Each time you develop new cybersecurity policies, make sure to announce them explicitly to your employees and explain their importance. A well-informed workforce is more likely to adhere to information security protocols and avoid risky behaviors that could compromise your organization’s security. 

Regularly conduct cybersecurity awareness trainings to ensure your employees are aware of the latest tactics attackers may use against your organization. This training can help employees recognize and promptly detect attacks, helping you mitigate security threats.

How does Syteca help you master PAM?

Syteca is a robust cybersecurity platform with powerful PAM tools designed to help organizations secure and streamline access to internal endpoints and servers. Syteca PAM empowers you to:

• Discover privileged accounts and onboard them to ensure secure credential management. Configure automated scans and notifications to stay informed about newly discovered accounts and take control of them, thus preventing security gaps stemming from unmanaged accounts.
• Streamline identity management through advanced authentication measures. Use two-factor authentication and one-time passwords to verify users and ensure full accountability in shared accounts with secondary authentication.
• Centralize and secure privileged account credentials with Syteca’s password manager. Automate password rotation, encrypt and check out passwords, and manage who can use and share credentials. Record and audit sessions with privileged credentials in use.
• Enhance control over access to critical resources with manual approval workflows. Require authorization from designated approvers before granting access to the most sensitive assets.
• Ensure just-in-time user access. Provide users with one-time passwords and set time-based restrictions to grant users access only when needed and revoke it immediately after.
• Gain full visibility of privileged user actions with continuous user activity monitoring. Capture on-screen actions, log session data, and receive real-time alerts on potential security threats.

Syteca can secure endpoints on Windows, Linux, macOS, Citrix, and virtual desktops. You can deploy Syteca software in your AWS and Microsoft Azure environments.

Syteca is a flexible and cost-effective platform that allows you to choose and pay solely for the range of capabilities your organization truly needs and easily reassign licenses between your endpoints.

Conclusion

PAM can help you effectively manage and monitor privileged access permissions, enhancing your organization’s cybersecurity. By following the PAM best practices in this article, you can build a strong foundation for securing your critical assets, minimizing risks, and maintaining compliance.

Syteca provides powerful PAM and UAM capabilities to help organizations control privileged access securely and efficiently. Syteca helps you easily implement these PAM best practices, ensuring a smoother, more secure way of managing privileged access in your organization.