The Difference Between IAM and PAM: Improving Your Cybersecurity Strategy
As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and businesses adopt remote or hybrid work models, securing access to sensitive resources has become a crucial part of cybersecurity strategies. Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) are two solutions that serve as the foundation for any cybersecurity plan.
While both tools help businesses protect their teams, data, and sensitive information, it’s important to understand the difference between IAM and PAM to ensure you use the right solution for your business.
Continue reading to learn more about each tool, its unique features, and how they are beneficial for various purposes.
Improve Your IT Growth Strategy
Strengthen your IT strategy by implementing advanced tools like IAM and PAM. Our IT growth specialists can help you execute these solutions, enabling you to better protect your business infrastructure.
Identity and access management basics
Employees need access to specific resources like work applications, files to share, or data to interpret. While teams used to access this information in the office through a firewall, hybrid and remote businesses have made it challenging to keep sensitive data safe yet accessible. That’s where identity and access management tools come into play.
The IT department needs a way to monitor user access to secure sensitive data and ensure that certain functions are only available to those who need them. IAM provides safe access to business resources like emails, databases, and applications for verified identities within the system. The goal of IAM is to control access so that the right employees can access what they need for their jobs while preventing unauthorized access for employees who do not need this information.
The access controls can extend beyond employees within the organization to include contractors, vendors, or business partners; however, IAM still allows your business to manage their level of access. As an essential part of a modern IT and cybersecurity system, IAM can manage a wide range of users across a company to help IT teams secure infrastructures without impacting productivity.
Compliance requirements for IAM
Without an identity and access management system in place, your IT team would have to manually audit every user and their activity when trying to access the infrastructure. This is not only time-consuming and resource-intensive but also leaves room for human error. IAMs enable businesses to automate this process and ensure that all data protection rules or standards like HIPAA, GDPR, or Red Flag Rules are being followed.
Why is identity and access management important?
Identity and access management reduces the risk of hackers breaching your system through modern attacks like insider hacks or phishing emails that target employees’ existing access. Data breaches or attacks on your IT system can quickly spread throughout the organization with little to no detection until the damage is already done. However, IAM can minimize and prevent the impact of attacks by flagging issues early to IT and cybersecurity teams.
Additionally, with modern technology like AI integrated into IAM solutions, these tools can now detect and stop attacks before they escalate. Implementing this kind of tool into your IT infrastructure will make it easier for your IT team to audit activity, reduce risk, and save time to focus on other efforts to keep your business safe.
What is privileged access management?
Similar to identity and access management, privileged access management (PAM) is an identity security solution that helps protect your organization against cyber threats by monitoring, detecting, and preventing unauthorized privileged access to critical business resources. PAM analyzes a combination of users, their processes, and the technology they use to provide insight into who is using privileged accounts, why they need them, and what they are doing when logged in.
Admins can limit the number of users who have access to a privileged account to enhance system security. PAM operates differently from IAM because it works with a specific group of users and machines that need a certain level of access to perform their duties. Privileged access may allow users to enter databases, back-end systems, or sensitive file storage. While IAM authorizes users who request permission to access something, PAM restricts access rights to the minimum number of employees needed to carry out authorized functions.
Privileged access management framework and regulations
While PAM acts as a regulatory authority for internal IT teams, it also comes with a set of external standards and regulations that need to be met in order to follow best practices.
6 key PAM regulations and standards:
- NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) 2.0 Framework:
A voluntary guide that helps businesses better understand and manage their cybersecurity and associated risks. - ISO (International Organization for Standardization):
Develops and publishes international standards, including those related to security management. These standards ensure businesses deliver safe and high-quality products, services, and processes. - PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard):
Designed to create a secure environment for all industries and cardholders to process or transmit credit card information. - SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act):
A U.S. law that protects shareholders and the public from fraud or accounting errors by improving financial disclosures and preventing fraudulent activity in accounting. - HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act):
U.S. standards that safeguard sensitive patient information. It requires physical, network, and process security measures for handling protected health information (PHI). - GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation):
An EU regulation that governs data protection and privacy for individuals in the EU and EEA, allowing individuals control over their personal data and setting global standards for privacy.
To maximize the effectiveness of your privileged access management solutions, these standards must be maintained. Without them, you risk cyber threats and data breaches that could cause significant damage to your business.
Improve Your IT Growth Strategy
Strengthen your IT strategy by implementing advanced tools like IAM and PAM. Our IT growth specialists can help you implement these solutions, enabling you to better protect your business infrastructure.
Why privileged access management is important for cybersecurity
With so many employees working within one organization, there is ample opportunity for human error, which often leads to exposure within PAM accounts. PAM solutions equip security teams with the necessary tools to identify malicious activities resulting from privilege abuse. IT teams can then take immediate action to mitigate the risks involved, even when working remotely or from another location.
PAM can ensure that all employees involved have only the necessary level of access needed to complete their tasks. It can also help address additional cybersecurity risks, such as:
- Minimizing security breaches by limiting its reach within your system.
- Reducing entrances and pathways for threat actors by reducing privileges for people, processes, and applications to protect against internal and external threats.
- Preventing malware attacks by removing excessive privileges and reducing its spread.
- Creating a more audit-friendly tech environment to help IT achieve a comprehensive security and risk management strategy.
Privileged Access Management not only streamlines operations for IT teams but also actively reduces the risk of cyber threats entering your organization. With secure access controls, everyone can access the tools they need to do their jobs without worrying about confidentiality.
Access PAM and IAM technologies and tools for better cybersecurity
Integrating IAM or PAM into your organization is crucial for establishing a layered and proactive cybersecurity strategy. IAM ensures that the appropriate users access the correct resources, while PAM enforces stricter controls over highly sensitive systems.
Both of these tools mitigate risk, reduce vulnerabilities, support regulatory compliance, and enhance visibility and control for IT departments over their infrastructure. Investing in modern tools like IAM or PAM helps your business better protect sensitive data and maintain secure, efficient operations in today’s advanced digital environment.
Our team at Applied Tech can help with strategizing, implementing, training, and maintaining your IAM or PAM solutions. Regardless of your industry, we can enhance your IT and cybersecurity infrastructure, making sure all compliance standards are met and operations run smoothly.
Contact us today to discover how we can assist you with integrating IAM or PAM solutions into your organization.
About Applied Tech
Applied Tech is a leading IT and cybersecurity services provider dedicated to helping businesses protect their digital assets. Our proactive and strategic services include cloud management, security, productivity, and IT growth strategy. With a team of experienced professionals, we provide unique solutions tailored to your IT needs.
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