Cybercrime is increasing every single day, but you’ve heard that all before. So, why do we keep pushing the same narrative month after month? Because the threats are continuing to increase, and your IT Staff are dealing with escalating challenges with no time and little resources. Partnering with an MSP that is also an MSSP can take the extra stress out of the hands of your internal IT Staff allowing them to get back to their daily routine and allowing your organization to run smoothly.
New Study Looks at Credentials and PAM
Based on the research findings of numerous studies, we know that credentials are the most common place of attack. New research by Delinea looked into credentials specifically, hoping to find answers as to how IT Security Leaders were combating this issue and what they were doing to heighten the protection of their credentials to prevent an attack. Delinea focused on organization’s adaption of Privileged Access Management (PAM), or a strategy for exerting control over the elevated privilege, access, and permissions for users, accounts, processes, and systems across an IT environment.
When surveyed by Delinea, 90% of the 2,000+ IT Security Leaders agreed that PAM is important to meeting their IT Security goals, but only 40% of surveyed individuals say their security strategy is keeping pace with the threat landscape. According to Delinea, “While most organizations talk the talk, they aren’t walking the walk.” A PAM solution can solve security weaknesses and human error such as multiple users having the same administrative password, or using long-standing passwords for important accounts. Talking the talk simply isn’t enough if you aren’t implementing security policies and procedures to help protect your organization.
Machine Identities Are Getting Ignored in Favor of Focusing on Human Accounts
Delinea’s research also found that organizations are focusing all of their attention on securing human accounts, while leaving machine identifies vulnerable. While it is a positive thing to protect human accounts, most organizations have hundreds, maybe thousands, of privileged accounts. The more accounts, identities, passwords, and credentials your organization has, the bigger your attack surface is. Most organizations only protect a small amount of their accounts, and most also don’t pay attention to the ones outside of the active directory. The lack of attention towards machine-based accounts is concerning for two reasons according to Delinea; they’re growing at a faster rate than human identities, and they pose an even greater risk if compromised.
Once a machine identity is compromised, they become powerful tools for attackers – allowing them to hide malicious activity, fly under the radar, and steal a wide range of sensitive data. According to Venafi and AIR Worldwide, between $51 billion to $72 billion in losses to the worldwide economy could be eliminated through proper machine identity management and protection.
Now that you’ve talked the talk, it’s time to walk the walk. Despite knowing how important security measures like PAM are, 75% of organizations surveyed by Delinea believe they will fall short of protecting privileged identities because they won’t get the support they need. Your Internal IT Staff members are running out of time in their day-to-day routines by keeping your organization afloat. Stacking additional responsibilities onto their plates isn’t always feasible. Partner with Pioneer-360, the SOC2 Type II Certified Security Experts, to take your organization’s security to the next level. Let your internal staff do their jobs, and let Pioneer-360 handle the tedious security tasks.
