It’s been well documented that privileged accounts are required to carry out a successful attack. Just put yourself in an attacker’s shoes: Do I need access to a particular network segment or want to change firewall rules to enable external communication? Do I want to gain access to the domain controller? Or do I want to dump the database table to capture a competitor’s customer list? Unprotected, unmonitored privileged accounts are your keys to the kingdom and a means to unlock your organization’s most sensitive assets – business critical systems, intellectual property, financial information, audit data and more.
You’re convinced that protecting your organization’s privileged accounts is a security imperative as attackers continue to target them to commandeer infrastructure and execute their attacks. But how do you go about selecting the right solutions from the right provider? You need a guide to know what to expect, and what to look for as you evaluate potential privileged account security solutions.
To help you make more informed decisions, we have introduced a new eBook, outlining seven important questions to ask every potential vendor as part of your assessment process, including:
- Is the solution really secure? This comprehensive guide outlines seven critical layers of protection that effective privileged account security solutions should employ, along with a checklist of questions to ask each potential vendor during your assessment.
- Can it find and protect all of my accounts? A typical enterprise has at least 3 to 4 times as many privileged accounts as employees, so before you can protect them, you have to be able to find and inventory them all throughout your IT environment.
- Can it protect all credentials? A comprehensive privileged account security solution will enable your organization to securely store all types of privileged credentials – including SSH keys – and conceal them from end users to reduce the risk of losing them to the wrong hands.
- Will it work in my environment? Your IT environment is unique, tailored to your organization’s specific requirements. Be sure that any solution you consider can protect accounts throughout most – if not all – of your IT environment, not just a few specific platforms.
- What protections are provided? It’s important to establish an end-to-end lifecycle approach to privileged account management that can be augmented over time and adapt to your organization’s changing needs and priorities. This approach includes 10 key steps.
- How can I minimize the cost of managing it? A complete end-to-end privileged account security solution requires multiple products to secure, manage, control and monitor privileged accounts, as well as detect active threats. As a result, organizations can be faced with the challenge of integrating and managing multiple solutions in order to achieve maximum protection. An effective, one-platform solution can help you avoid four common, costly pitfalls.
- How reliable is the vendor? The only way to effectively break the attack chain is to proactively prevent attackers from gaining the elevated administrative privileges needed to reach – and steal – sensitive data inside your organization. That’s why it’s critical to ensure that any potential vendor treats privileged account security as its primary, strategic focus. This guide will arm you with specific, pointed questions to ask each potential provider, to help gauge their commitment to on-going innovation around this critical issue.
Privileged accounts are everywhere. Attack targets and potential security breaches are everywhere. How are you planning to protect what matters most?
To download the free eBook, please visit https://www.cyberark.com/resource/seven-things-to-consider-when-evaluating-privileged-account-security-solutions/.
