When securing critical assets, most leaders picture a digital fortress – high walls around sensitive databases, rigorous server patching, and complex firewalls. But adversaries aren’t trying to break down the front gate – they’re looking for the keys.
In modern cybersecurity, it doesn’t matter how high your walls are if someone has the credentials to walk right through them.
This shifts the conversation from traditional perimeter security to Privileged Access Management (PAM).
If you’re relying solely on patching high-risk vulnerabilities, you might be leaving the back door wide open. Here’s why it’s time to rethink how you protect your critical assets.
The vulnerability blind spot
For years, vulnerability management has followed a simple formula: identify critical risks, patch them, and move on. It seems logical – if a vulnerability is rated critical, it must be the most dangerous, right?
Not always.
Adversaries know security teams focus on high-risk alerts and patching obvious holes. So, they’ve shifted tactics.
Hackers are now targeting medium and low-risk vulnerabilities – the ones left on the backlog. By chaining these lower-risk issues, they can bypass defences and gain access through overlooked gaps.
Effective vulnerability management isn’t just about compliance checklists. It’s about understanding what attackers are exploiting in your industry and shifting from static asset lists to a dynamic view of access and usage.
Identity is the new perimeter
Your critical assets – customer data, intellectual property, or financial records – are all protected by user accounts, passwords, or credentials.
Often, these are privileged accounts like admin logins or service accounts. If an attacker gains control of one, they don’t need to hack your system – they just log in.
This leads to a concerning reality: the ‘ghost’ admin account.
Controlling access
So, how do we fix this? We need to move away from permanent access and towards a model of just-in-time access.
Let’s look at a practical example. Let’s say you have a system administrator named Sam. In a traditional setup, Sam might have 24/7 admin rights to your servers. If Sam’s credentials are phished, the attacker has immediate, unfettered access.
With a robust PAM strategy, Sam doesn’t hold those keys permanently.
Instead, when Sam needs to perform a task, they request access through a centralised system. The system says, “Okay, Sam has access to this account for the next 24 hours”, or perhaps just for a single session. Once they are done, they check the account back in.
Crucially, the password is then automatically rotated. It is reset to a complex, random string that nobody – not even Sam – knows until it is requested again. This renders any stolen credentials useless the moment the session ends.
The rise of AI and non-human identities
The challenge of managing access is about to get significantly more complex. We aren’t just managing people like Sam anymore – we are managing machines.
As organisations rush to adopt AI and automation, the number of non-human identities (service accounts, bots, APIs) is exploding. A recent report by Endpoint Focus partner, Delinea, highlights that the rise of non-human identities is forcing a shift from simple authentication to a more holistic strategy involving intelligent authorisation and governance.
Furthermore, AI isn’t just a tool for business efficiency – it’s a weapon for adversaries. Delinea Labs recently reported that AI-driven attacks are becoming faster, more sophisticated, and harder to detect.
If your privileged access controls aren’t tight, AI-driven bots can brute-force or exploit legacy credentials faster than any human security team can react.
Why cyber insurance cares about your passwords
If the threat of a breach isn’t enough motivation, the financial reality of cyber insurance might be.
Insurers are losing money on ransomware claims, and they are tightening their requirements. They want proof that you are not low-hanging fruit.
A recent study found that for 97% of organisations, the presence of identity-related security measures has a direct impact on the cost and conditions of their cyber insurance policies. Among these controls, Privileged Access Management is often cited as the top differentiator.
Simply put: if you can’t prove you are managing and monitoring privileged accounts, you might find it difficult (or incredibly expensive) to get insured.
Managing the exceptions
Of course, implementing these controls in the real world is never as simple as flipping a switch. You might have legacy systems that break if a password is changed, or hard-coded credentials in scripts that Sam wrote five years ago.
The goal isn’t just to buy a tool like Delinea’s Secret Server and hope for the best. It’s about designing processes to handle these exceptions:
- How do we find an admin account that hasn’t had a password change in years?
- How do we secure accounts that can’t be rotated daily?
- How do we secure the growing number of mobile devices accessing corporate data? (See more on Mastering Endpoint Security here).
This is where the ‘Management’ in Privileged Access Management comes in. It requires a combination of smart tooling to automate rules and experienced oversight to manage exceptions.
Taking the next step
Securing your critical assets starts with protecting the identities that access them. It’s about shifting from patching holes to locking keys.
Now you can uncover hidden risks in your access protocols – from forgotten admin accounts to unmanaged devices – and build a security posture that protects your business without slowing it down.
Don’t wait for an audit or breach to expose the gaps. Let’s talk about securing your keys to the kingdom.
