Privilege. Made Simple

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Privilege. Made Simple

~ Privilege Identity Management (PIM) demystified

Abstract

In an effort to improve business security, compliance and productivity, privilege

authorization policies must be redesigned and user permissions more granularly managed. Yet identity and access management (IAM) solutions have remained largely unchanged. Traditional solutions account for a significant part of the total cost of IAM, a staggering amount when you consider that these solutions fail to control superuser access to critical servers, and fail to enable desktop users to effectively perform their job.

This white paper will discuss how your enterprise can empower IT to eliminate the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers using globally proven solutions that increase security and compliance without impacting productivity.

www.beyondtrust.com

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Privileged Identity Management Demystified

US government and private sector information, once unreachable or requiring years of expensive technological or human asset preparation to obtain, can now be accessed, inventoried, lost or stolen with comparative ease either by accident or deliberately using sophisticated privileged identity attack tools.

In an effort to improve business security, compliance and productivity, privilege authorization policies must be redesigned and user permissions more granularly managed. Yet identity and access management (IAM) solutions have remained largely unchanged. Traditional solutions account for a significant part of the total cost of IAM, a staggering amount when you consider that these solutions:

• Fail to enable desktop users to effectively do their job as a standard user (80% of employees’ login with administrator rights) • Fail to control superuser access to

critical servers, giving users complete and unchecked access (80% of all security breaches are committed by those working within an organization)

• Force organizations to choose between productivity and security

when implementing a privileged identity management solution.

While these challenges may have been historically acceptable, they are no longer good enough. It is time for businesses to expect more from their privileged identity

management solution in order to improve security, compliance and overall productivity.

priv·i·leged i·den·ti·ty

def – Any type of user or account that holds special or extra permissions within the enterprise systems. Privileged identities are usually categorized into the following types:

1. Generic/Shared Administrative Accounts: the non-personal accounts that exist in virtually every device or software application. These accounts hold “super user” privileges and are often shared among IT staff (i.e., Windows Administrator user, UNIX root user, and Oracle SYS account)

Are your security concerns over privileged identity access being addressed adequately?

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2. Privileged Personal Accounts: the powerful accounts that are used by business

users and IT personnel. These accounts have a high level of privilege and their use (or misuse) can significantly affect the organization’s business. (i.e., CFO user, DBA user)

3. Application Accounts: the accounts used by applications to access databases and other applications. These accounts typically have broad access to underlying business information in databases

4. Emergency Accounts: special generic accounts used by the enterprise when elevated privileges are required to fix urgent problems, such as in cases of business

continuity or disaster recovery. Access to these accounts frequently

requires managerial approval (i.e., fire-call IDs, break-glass users, etc.)

Privileged identities touch upon virtually every commercial sector. This is because every enterprise has a critical component in cyberspace that is accessible by end users, applications, devices, and accounts within this highly-complex collaborative ecosystem.

This white paper attempts to simplify and demystify the privileged identity management (PIM) discussion. This white appear also discusses how enterprises can empower IT to eliminate the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers using globally proven solutions that increase security and compliance without impacting productivity.

67% of breaches in 2008 were caused by accidental misuse of privileges by administrators.

- 2009 Verizon Data

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Who has the keys to your enterprise?

Age of Authorization

Technology is an ever-changing and evolving aspect of modern business. Most agree that the use of technology is essential to achieving many of the milestones critical to business reform. Identity and Access Management (IAM) govern three significant areas when ensuring proper identity security – authorization, access and authentication.

Authorization

Authorization management is a significant pillar in identity security, mainly due to the fact that industries are moving from paper to electronic records. Authorization is the process of giving someone permission to perform certain tasks, or obtain certain information.

More formally, "to authorize" is to define permission policies. For example, human

resources staff is normally authorized to access employee records, and this policy is usually formalized as permission brokering rules in a computer system. During operation, the system uses the permission brokering rules to decide whether permission requests from (authenticated) users shall be granted or rejected. Resources include an individual file, task, or item data.

Access

Access includes the process of centrally provisioning role based time bound credentials for privileged access to IT assets in order to facilitate administrative tasks. Super User

Privileged Access (SUPM) and Share Account Password Management are two focal points for proper access controls.

Super User Privileged Management

(SUPM)

&

Shared Account Password Management

(SAPM)

When it comes to crashing your enterprise systems, destroying data, deleting or creating accounts and changing passwords, it's not just malicious hackers you need to worry about. Anyone inside your organization with superuser privileges has the potential to cause similar havoc, either through accidental, intentional or indirect misuse of privileges.

Superusers may well also have access to confidential information and sensitive personal data they have no business looking at, thus breaching regulatory requirements and risking fines. The trouble is that accounts with superuser privileges, including shared accounts, are necessary: You can't run a corporate IT system without granting some people the privileges to do system-level tasks.

This is where SUPM and SAPM methodologies come into play. So what's the best way to manage personal and shared accounts with superuser privileges in a controlled and

Global leaders appear to be “protecting” information security from budget cuts – but also place it under intensive pressure to”perform”

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accounts is essential to security & compliance

auditable manner? That was a key question Research Vice President Ant Allan addressed at the Gartner Information Security Summit 2009 in London back in September. When it comes to best practices for managing personal accounts with superuser privileges, Allan recommended creating three types of accounts:

• Personal accounts with full, permanent superuser privileges

• Personal accounts with full (or restricted) temporary superuser privileges • Personal accounts with limited, temporary superuser privileges

Superuser activity on any of these accounts should be monitored, logged and reconciled, Allan recommended. The first two types are intended for full-time system administrators, and the number of these accounts should be minimized.

However, it's important not to make the number too small, Allan warned. Otherwise there might not be enough people available at a given time to take required action when it is needed. It's also prudent to consider limiting the scope of the superuser privileges across the organization's infrastructure by asking yourself: Does a given administrator need to be a superuser on all the systems in the organization?

The third type of account, the one with limited, temporary superuser privileges, is intended for application developers and database administrators. The superuser privileges of these accounts should be limited to the applications or other areas that they might reasonably need to access. Allan recommended using superuser privilege management (SUPM) tools to control these three account types:

• By privilege (e.g., by regulating the commands available) • By scope (by resources or systems, perhaps)

• By time (either by providing privileges for a fixed time period or by time windows)

Allan also recommended using shared account privilege management (SAPM) tools to control these three account types:

• By privilege (e.g., by regulating the commands available) • By form factors (checksum, license code, IP address) • By scope (by resources or systems, perhaps)

• By time (either by providing privileges for a fixed time period or by time windows)

“Organizations continue to struggle with excessive user privilege as it remains the primary attack point for data breaches and unauthorized transactions.”

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Authentication

Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be. In private and public computer networks (including the Internet), authentication is commonly done through the use of logon passwords. Knowledge of the password is assumed to guarantee that the user is authentic.

Each user registers initially (or is registered by someone else), using an assigned or self-declared password. On each subsequent use, the user must know and use the previously declared password. The weakness in this system for transactions that are significant (such as the exchange of money) is that passwords can often be stolen, accidentally revealed, or forgotten. For this reason, Internet business and many other transactions require a more stringent authentication process.

Identifying the Misuse of Privilege

Problems that manifest themselves in an organization due to misuse of privilege stem from intentional, accidental, or indirect causes. The amount of threats posed to organizations have increased faster than security professionals can effectively address them, opening targeted organizations up to greater risk.

Intentional

Intentional misuse of privilege often stems from insider attacks. An insider attack is defined as any malicious attack on a corporate system or network where the intruder is someone who has been entrusted with authorized access to the network, and also may have knowledge of the network architecture.

A 2010 CSO Cyber Security Watch Survey published findings that demonstrate the significant risks posed from insider attacks.

Cyber criminals now operate undetected within the very “walls” erected to keep hackers out. Technologies include rogue devices plugged into corporate networks, polymorphic malware, and key loggers that capture credentials and give criminals privileged

authorization while evading detection. In 2008, the White House issued the Cyber Security Policy Review, which profiled systemic loss of U.S. economic value from intellectual property and data theft as high as $1 trillion.

The Computer Security Institute and FBI report states that an insider attack costs an average of $2.7 million per attack. CSO magazine cites the following points regarding this threat:

Insider attacks cost an average $2.7 Million per attack.

- Computer Security

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address the threat of cybercrime, but this is not enough to mitigate the risk • Risk-based approaches hold potentially greater value than traditional

security-based, “wall-and-fortress” approaches

• Organizations should understand how they are viewed by cyber criminals in terms of attack vectors, systems of interest, and process vulnerabilities, so they can better protect themselves from attack

• Economic hardships spawned by the 2008-2009 recession may generate resentment and financial motivations that can drive internal parties or former employees to crime

International consultancy agency, Deloitte, stated the survey conducted by CSO magazine reveals a serious lack of awareness and a degree of complacency on the part of IT

organizations, and perhaps security officers. Organizations may focus on unsophisticated attacks from hackers or insiders because they are the noisiest and easiest to detect. Yet that focus can overlook stealthier attacks that can product more serious systemic and monetary impacts.

Accidental

Though difficult for many to admit, humans are fallible. We are not perfectly consistent in our principles personally or professionally. Accidental misuse of privileges on desktops and servers does happen, and it does have a measurable impact on the organization as a whole. For example, desktop configuration errors cost companies an average of $120/PC, according to IDC report, “The

Relationship between IT Labor Costs and Best Practices for IAM.”

In September 2004, HFC Bank, one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom, sent 2,600 customers an e-mail that, due to an internal operator error, exposed recipients’ e-mail addresses to everyone on the list. The problem was compounded when out-of-office messages -- containing home and mobile phone numbers – automatically responded to the mailing.

As one famous hacker said, “The weakest link in any network is its people.” The most fortified network is still vulnerable if users can be tricked into undermining its security -- for example, by giving away passwords or other confidential data over the phone, or

performing some activity that allows malware to hijack admin rights on desktops.

For this reason, user education should be one cornerstone of a corporate site security policy, in addition to privilege authorization management. Make users aware of potential social engineering attacks, the risks involved, and how to respond. Furthermore,

By controlling and auditing superuser access 10% of incidents can be averted, saving over $113,000 in prevented breaches annually.

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encourage them to report suspected violations immediately. In this era of phishing and identity theft, security is a responsibility that every employee must share.

Indirect

Indirect misuse of privileges is when one or more attack types are launched from a third party computer which has been taken over remotely. A startling statistic revealed by Gartner is that 67% of all malware detections ever made were detected in 2008. Gartner also estimates managed desktops, or users

who run without admin rights, produce on average a $1,237 savings per desktop and reduce the amount of IT labor for technical support by 24%.

The Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) hosted its annual summit on emerging security threats on October 15 and published its annual attack forecast report. According to their research, the electronic domain will see greater amounts of malware attacks and various security threats in the coming year.

Data will continue to be the primary motive behind future cybercrime, whether targeting traditional fixed computing or mobile applications. According to security expert George Heron, “It’s all about the data”, so he expects data to drive cyber-attacks for years to come. This motive is woven through all five emerging threat categories.

Best Practices for Evaluating PIM

While understanding the standard definition of PIM is simple, privilege identity management can mean very different things to different business units within an enterprise:

Evaluating PIM – CFO

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) relate to PIM in financial terms. From a CFO perspective, authorization most likely impacts the cost of a company budget (i.e., productivity, security) or costs incurred due to misuse of privileges (i.e., compliance, fraud). A primary advantage in directing attention to PIM best practices is the reduction in costs that result from improving the efficiency of handling information and accessing exactly what you need to in order to perform your job.

Real risks and potential costs to an enterprise due to poor management of security and authorization will also be of greater meaning to a CFO. Information technology will be the medium of choice for all exploitation of privileges in an enterprise. In fact, the future has

67% of all malware detections ever made were detected in 2008

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10 Privilege.Made Simple © 2010. BeyondTrust Software, Inc. already arrived, with annual losses from viruses, intrusions, and data breaches estimated by some entities to be in the millions of dollars annually.

It is especially important that a CFO understands the risks associated with unsecured systems due to improper authorization. Otherwise, management choices may unwittingly jeopardize the company’s reputation, proprietary information, and financial results. A CFO does not need to be a security expert, but understanding the basics behind authorization will lend itself to implementing best practices.

The Most Important Strategy for Meeting Security Objectives

CEO CFO CIO CISO

Increasing focus on data protection Prioritizing security based on risk

2010 Global State of Information Security (CIO Magazine)

Evaluating PIM – CIO/CSO

Most CIOs stress the importance of security to senior managers. In order to ensure an enterprise is implementing proper PIM policies, a CIO should look to ensure the ability to collect user activity and authorization information from a variety of resources, associate this data with candidate roles and responsibilities, propose alternative roles and leverage decisions made about the data on an ongoing basis. Without a standardized solution in place, productivity can be impacted as this takes many resources and time to complete. Improper PIM practices can lead to serious problems due to misuse of privileges.

Security initiatives have a higher success rate when it is tied to business initiatives and a corporate goal. When PIM security is built into business initiatives, funding will come. Likewise, tying PIM to the corporate security goal (i.e., to ensure the integrity of company data), implementing such policies will show an executive commitment to security.

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41% _39% _38%

37%

32%

Business

Continuity DownturnEconomic Internal Policy Compliance ComplianceRegulatory ReputationCompany 2010 Global State of Information Security Survey

Main Drivers for IT Security Spending

Evaluating PIM – Administrator

Security policies are the first line of defense to an IT environment. Without them, an enterprise will be at war. Not only will there be battles between the different support organizations, but administrators could be battling hackers (internally or externally). There will be no politics from misuse of privileges – just a raw desire to change, steal, or

accidentally destroy data. Additionally, proper authorization security empowers administrators to eliminate the risk of misuse of privilege by no longer requiring the distribution of administrative rights or root passwords.

Executives often hand off the responsibility for security to systems administrators without providing adequate resources to deploy the authorization controls needed to secure and maintain privileged access. As with CIOs, demonstrating the tie-in to business initiatives and/or corporate goals will help an administrator meet their objectives as well.

Evaluating PIM – Auditor

Compliance, compliance, compliance – Mandates that require greater privilege authorization control include but are not limited to SOX, HIPAA, GLBA, and PCI DSS. Auditors are well aware of policies that must be in place to comply with federal, state and industry regulations. Non-compliance can result in fines, severe financial losses, data breaches, and damage to a company’s reputation. Sound authorization security will help auditors validate corporate compliance. Proper authorization detection and audit-friendly logs to track privilege use helps an auditor perform the complex duties of this position.

Audits have become so important that they command board-level attention. The

advantage of using an identity and authorization management tool is that it provides the

After years of “thinking differently,” business and IT leaders may be starting to think like each other.

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12 Privilege.Made Simple © 2010. BeyondTrust Software, Inc. ability to log, control, audit and report on which users have privileges to what information assets. Regulatory and compliance issues are among the main drivers behind identity and authorization brokering tools. Organizations require the ability to demonstrate that account administration and authorization controls are performing according to policy. A good tool should serve as the cornerstone of enterprise governance, risk and overall compliance strategy. Some of the finer points a solution should deliver are: always knowing who is accessing what; when they are doing it and if they are authorized; automatic provisioning of accounts; and integration with enterprise applications; to name a few.

An auditor is interested in "seeing" proof of compliance. Most of these tools create an audit trail that auditors should accept for a general controls audit and proof of compliance. A basic identity and authorization management tool should help organizations comply with most of the challenges that regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS place on our

organizations.

In fact, HIPAA may have a new enforcement mechanism because of the HITECH Act signed into law in February 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The new law gives government officials more power when enforcing HIPAA policy, especially when dealing with companies that do business in multiple states. An identity and authorization management tool would be the perfect solution for this kind of company, creating a common reporting framework.

Privileged Access Lifecycle Management

Banks, insurance companies, and other institutions are faced with the monumental task of managing authorization to mission-critical systems. These organizations have large numbers of internal and external users accessing an increasing number of applications, with each user requiring a different level of security and control requirements. In addition, these organizations must also address identity management concerns that arise from compliance issues related to regulations like SOX, HIPAA, GLBA, and PCI DSS.

High administrative costs due to account maintenance, password resets, inconsistent information, inflexible information technology (IT) environments, silos due to mergers and acquisitions, and aging IT infrastructures make this even more challenging for

organizations. Together, these factors are propelling the adoption of privileged lifecycle access management solutions across all industries. Privileged Access Lifecycle

Management (PALM) is a technology architecture framework consisting of four continual stages running under a centralized automated platform: Access to privileged resources; control of privileged resources; monitoring of actions taken on privileged resources; and remediation to revert changes made on privileged IT resources to a known good state.

“Detection is critical to any security architecture…For effective detection, layers are critical. Intrusion-detection sensors, uniform authorization control, and system logs play a key role in detection.”

- Lance Spitzner, Senior Security

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Privileged Access Lifecycle Management (PALM) Workflow

Access

Access includes the process of centrally provisioning role based time-bound credentials for privileged access to IT assets in order to facilitate administrative tasks. The process also includes automation for approval of access requests and auditing of access logs.

Control

Control includes the process of centrally managing role based permissions for tasks that can be conducted by

administrators once granted access to a privileged IT resource. The process also includes automation for approval of permission requests and auditing of administrative actions conducted on the system.

Monitor

Monitor includes audit management of logging, recording and overseeing user

activities. This process also includes automated workflows for event and I/O log reviews and acknowledgements and centralized audit trails for streamlined audit support and heightened security awareness.

Remediation

Remediation includes the process of refining previously assigned permissions for access and/or control to meet security or compliance objectives, and the capability to centrally roll back system configuration to a previous known acceptable state if required.

Automation of the Privileged Access Management Lifecycle includes a central unifying policy platform coupled with an event review engine, that provides controls for and visibility into each stage of the lifecycle.

“Asking a network administrator to secure a network when they can’t monitor its activity is like asking a mechanic to work on the engine of a car without opening the hood.”

- Marcus Ranum, Founder

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ROI Value – PALM

 37% reduction in help desk costs

“Reducing the Threat from Microsoft Vulnerabilities“ by BeyondTrust

 Average insider attack costs an enterprise $2.7 million and 42 percent of corporations at least one incident per year. Computer Security Institute and FBI Survey

 By controlling and auditing superuser access 10% of incidents can be averted, saving over $113,000 in prevented breaches annually

Gartner, Inc., "Organizations That Unlock PCs Unnecessarily Will Face High Costs"  Mandates, such as SOX, HIPAA, GLBA, and the FDCC, have common goals of monitoring

and controlling privileged user access.

How to cost justify Privileged Access Lifecycle Management

• Security: Privileged Access is critical for smooth ongoing administration of IT assets. At the same time, it exposes an organization to security risks, especially insider threats.

• Compliance: Privileged Access to critical business systems, if not managed correctly, can introduce significant compliance risks. The ability to provide an audit trail across all stages of the Privileged Access Lifecycle Management is critical for compliance, and is often difficult to achieve in large complex heterogeneous IT environments.

• Reduced Complexity: Effective Privileged Access Lifecycle Management in large heterogeneous environments with multiple administrators, managers and auditors, can be an immensely challenging task.

• Heterogeneous Coverage: An effective PALM solution supports across a broad range of platforms including Windows, UNIX, Linux, AS/400, Active Directory, databases, firewalls, and routers/switches.

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Beginning Steps Before Implementing PALM

1. Set Security as a Corporate Goal

Enterprises may have trouble maintaining security because everyone is too busy trying to reach other goals. If you have problems maintaining security in your company, consider adding security as a goal for every level of management.

2. Provide or Enlist in Training as Required

For security to work, everyone needs to know the basic rules. Once they know the rules, it doesn’t hurt to prompt them to follow those rules.

3. Ensure All Managers Understand Security

It is especially important that all members of management understand the risks associated with unsecured systems. Otherwise, management choices may unwittingly jeopardize the company’s reputation, proprietary information, and financial results.

4. Communicate to Management Clearly

Too often, system administrators complain to their terminals instead of their supervisors. Other times, system administrators find that complaining to their supervisors is remarkably like complaining to their terminals.

If you are a manager, make sure that your people have access to your time and attention. When security issues come up, it is important to pay attention. The first line of defense for your network is strong communication with the people behind your machines.

If you are a system administrator, try to ensure that talking to your immediate manager fixes the problems you see from potential or realized misuse of privileges. If it doesn’t, you should be confident enough to reach higher in the management chains to alert for action.

5. Delineate Cross-Organizational Security Support

If your company has a security group and a system administration group, the organization needs to clearly define their roles and responsibilities. For example, are the system administrators responsible for configuring the systems? Is the security group responsible for reporting non-compliance? If no one is officially responsible, nothing will get done. And accountability for resulting problems will many times be shouldered by the non-offending party.

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Freeware vs. Licensed Software

To be able to understand pros and cons of Open Source software, one must first

understand the philosophy in which it is rooted. Suppose for a moment you're a student reading a physics book which explains the Theory of Relativity.

Now, you are able to read the book, use the notorious formula E=mc2_{to solve all of your}

exercises and, if you're a particularly brilliant student, why not, even start from there to come up with a new formula leading to a new scientific discovery.

In other words, the scientific knowledge is in public domain, free for everybody to use,

modify and redistribute - you don't have to pay a royalty to Einstein's nephew every time you solve a difficult physics exercise or you daydream about time-space travel.

In this sense, freeware may be regarded as an attempt at making the world of technology much more similar to that of science, particularly in the field of computer software. Every software distributed with an open source license grants to everybody the rights to disassemble, rebuild, manipulate and personalize the product, making it possible to understand its inner mechanisms and adapt the product to the user's needs.

However, using open source software for IT security purposes is generally discouraged simply because the entire source code is available for free download would usually make it much easier for a malicious user to find an exploitable bug in the program in order to bypass all protections.

Whereas using the proprietary software in this case tends to make things difficult for the potential attacker, as he would have to reverse-engineer a large part of the program in order to achieve the same result.

Sure, open source software may be “free,” but the propeller-heads you need to actually get it working, customized, and supported aren't. Spending time customizing a software product, just because its “open source,” doesn't mean that time is well spent. Business owners should stick to the boring, off-the-shelf stuff for now.

- Gene Marks,

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Disadvantages of Freeware (i.e., sudo)

• Fewer features: Open Source software simply does not have all the granular features available in commercial software solutions

• Steep Learning Curves: Open Source software requires time and effort to learn new procedures in managing applications

• Limited Support: Support for Open Source software is far less available than support for commercial software. While searching for an answer to a particularly difficult question, you might feel as though you are drowning in the web instead of surfing it. To maintain productivity, it is best to consider paying for commercial support that is available 24x7

Freeware

Licensed Software

Statically defined permissions Rich policy language for complex procedural logic

No true “shell” functionality Integrated “shell” variants of Korn and Bourne shells

Event logging of input only Full keystroke logging of input and resulting output

Log files in clear text with identity information exposed

Encrypted audit trail prevents alteration and erasure

Config files must be manually copied to each local machine for any change

Scalable, maintainable and fault-tolerant in large heterogeneous environments

Default run user if “root” No access unless explicitly granted

Open source software not maintained by any single entity

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BeyondTrust Solutions

Privilege. Made Simple

BeyondTrust empowers IT to eliminate the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers with globally proven solutions that increase security and compliance without impacting productivity.

In today’s collaborative environments, organizations need to provide the extended enterprise with necessary privileges to do their jobs. However, in order to increase security, compliance and productivity, organizations must not distribute root passwords or admin rights. BeyondTrust transparently brokers server and desktop permissions, providing a globally proven solution to privilege authorization that enables users to access the IT resources they need when they need it and for organizations to remain secure and compliant.

BeyondTrust is a globally proven leader with more than 25 years of experience. BeyondTrust has solved the problem of granting excess privileges by transparently brokering necessary permissions and enabling users to run authorized applications, tasks and commands without admin rights or root passwords. All privileged access is recorded for audits.

Privilege Identity Management for Desktops

BeyondTrust PowerBroker for Desktops enables organizations to remove administrator rights and allow end-users to run all required Windows applications, processes and ActiveX controls. By eliminating the need to grant administrator rights to end-users, IT

departments can create a more secure, compliant and standard environment.

Privilege Identity Management for Servers

PowerBroker for Servers allows system administrators the ability to delegate privileges and authorization without disclosing the root password on Unix, Linux, Mac OS X servers. Centrally managed via a web-based console, auditing includes event and keystroke logging of privileged access.

PowerBroker for Servers also includes PSMC (PowerSeries Management Console). PSMC provides a secure web-based application providing a platform for the automated

management of the privileged access lifecycle across heterogeneous environments. PSMC

A system administrator’s productivity increases by 25% by using PowerBroker for Servers to centrally maintain Unix/Linux security policies and to produce audit-friendly logs necessary for compliance.

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integrates with PowerBroker for Servers® to provide new policy and incident workflows and centralized management capabilities, enabling automated workflows for privileged policy creation, aggregation of privileged logging and audit data, and policy propagation in large scale deployments. This integration helps customers to achieve a robust security and compliance posture, while tremendously easing the manageability of large super user privileged management systems.

Meta Group research indicates that half of a full-time equivalent (FTE) is needed to manage desktops and servers for software distribution, problem resolution and user account management. Using their compiled research, controlling and auditing superuser access can avert 10% of incidents, saving over $113,000 in prevented breaches annually.

Automated Password Management for Devices, OS & Applications

BeyondTrust PowerBroker Password Safe is an Automated Password Management (APM) solution for access control, manageability and audit of all types of privileged accounts such as shared administrative accounts, application accounts, and local administrative accounts. PowerBroker Password Safe is available as a hardened physical appliance and a secure virtual machine to match an enterprise’s specific environmental needs.

PowerBroker Password Safe enables organizations to reduce the risk posed by shared account access and instead provides a controlled and auditable process that generates onetime use passwords (OTP), rotates the password on any system managed by PowerBroker Password Safe, and tracks user and password activity within PowerBroker Password Safe.

PowerBroker Password Safe is a critical component of the BeyondTrust PowerSeries product suite that automates Privilege Access Lifecycle Management (PALM). PowerBroker Password Safe secures the “Access” stage of PALM and lays the foundation for best-of-breed granular privilege access control from other BeyondTrust solutions.

By controlling and auditing superuser access, 10% of incidents can be averted, saving over $113,000 in prevented breaches annually.

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People Need Boundaries, Not Walls

Let’s face it – organizations cannot simply build walls to protect vital information anymore. However, in the process of adapting to this new virtual collaborative environment comes the enormous challenge of ensuring that privileged access to critical information is not misused. Walls that may have worked a decade ago are now practically irrelevant as users seek ways around, over, or under these obstructions because it interferes with their main job duties. As we move forward in this evolving era, it’s important to develop an awareness of how to protect our resources, whatever they may be, using boundaries to guide us, not walls.

Having well defined awareness of boundaries enables end users and applications to communicate freely within an IT environment without worry of intentional, accidental or indirect misuse of privilege. Boundaries allow a more productive and compliant dialogue to take place between users and the IT department and proactively deters attempts of misuse. If boundaries are respected, then IT remains in control of security, compliance and productivity, and has the authority to take proactive steps in which to protect the

enterprise.

Privileged identity management is critical business systems, and if not managed correctly, can introduce significant compliance risks. Privileged authorization is critical for smooth ongoing administration of IT assets. At the same time, it exposes an organization to security risks, especially insider threats. The BeyondTrust solution is unique as it provides centralized visibility into policies as well as actions (audit logs) related to privileged access and control, ensuring complete awareness of the security posture at each stage of the Privileged Access Management Lifecycle.

The BeyondTrust PALM model allows every organization of every industry to create the boundaries necessary to adapt to the growing collaborative world.

About BeyondTrust

BeyondTrust empowers IT to eliminate the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers with globally proven solutions that increase security and compliance without impacting productivity. With more than 25 years of global success, BeyondTrust is the pioneer of Privileged Access Lifecycle Management (PALM) solutions for heterogeneous IT environments.

More than half of the companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rely on BeyondTrust to secure their enterprises. Customers include eight of the world's 10 largest banks, seven of the world's 10 largest aerospace and defense firms, and six of the 10 largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies, as well as renowned universities. The company is privately held and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with East Coast offices in Greater Boston as well as Washington DC, and EMEA offices in London, UK. For more information, visit www.beyondtrust.com.

Privilege. Made Simple

Privilege. Made Simple

~ Privilege Identity Management (PIM) demystified

Abstract

Table of Contents

Privileged Identity Management Demystified

priv·i·leged i·den·ti·ty

Age of Authorization

Authorization

Access

Super User Privileged Management

(SUPM)

&

Shared Account Password Management

(SAPM)

Authentication

Identifying the Misuse of Privilege

Intentional

Accidental

Indirect

Best Practices for Evaluating PIM

Evaluating PIM – CFO

Evaluating PIM – CIO/CSO

Evaluating PIM – Administrator

Evaluating PIM – Auditor

Privileged Access Lifecycle Management

Access

Control

Monitor

Remediation

How to cost justify Privileged Access Lifecycle Management

Beginning Steps Before Implementing PALM

Freeware vs. Licensed Software

Disadvantages of Freeware (i.e., sudo)

Freeware

Licensed Software

BeyondTrust Solutions

Privilege. Made Simple

Privilege Identity Management for Desktops

Privilege Identity Management for Servers

Automated Password Management for Devices, OS & Applications

People Need Boundaries, Not Walls

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