What Is Privileged Access Management?

Privileged Access Management, often abbreviated as privileged access management PAM, is a cybersecurity discipline focused on controlling, monitoring, and securing elevated access across an IT environment. As organizations adopt cloud environments, automation, and artificial intelligence, privileged access has become one of the most critical risk areas for security teams.

This article provides an informative, vendor-neutral explanation of what privileged access management is, how privileged access management works, and why PAM has become essential for protecting sensitive systems and data. This guide is intended for IT professionals, security teams, and compliance officers seeking to understand the fundamentals of PAM and its importance in modern cybersecurity.

Privileged access management (PAM) consists of strategies and technologies for controlling elevated access and permissions for identities, users, accounts, processes, and systems across an IT environment. PAM is considered a subset of Identity and Access Management (IAM) that focuses specifically on privileged accounts and systems.

PAM helps organizations manage and secure access to their most critical systems, applications, and data. Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a cybersecurity discipline that governs and secures privileged accounts and activities, reducing identity-based risk while maintaining operational continuity. Privileged access management work involves using PAM vaults to store sensitive credentials and implementing privilege elevation techniques to secure and monitor privileged access to systems.

Organizations manage privileged access to prevent unauthorized access to critical systems and data, protect against insider and external threats, and comply with regulatory requirements.

Approximately 80% of security breaches involve compromised privileged credentials. As a result, PAM has become a core security control rather than an optional add-on. PAM systems help organizations by implementing just-in-time privilege elevation, credential vaults, and security controls to limit and monitor privileged access. Privileged access requests are handled through automated workflows in PAM systems to ensure secure and efficient granting of temporary or elevated access.

Privileged accounts are user accounts or service accounts that have elevated permissions beyond those of regular user accounts, allowing them to perform critical actions like installing software and accessing sensitive data. These accounts often include administrator accounts, domain administrative accounts, root access accounts, local administrative accounts, and admin accounts.

Privileged accounts have elevated permissions and capabilities, allowing users to perform various administrative tasks and access sensitive information. Securing privileged accounts is essential to prevent unauthorized privileged account access, as these accounts are high-value targets for hackers. Access privileged accounts must be tightly controlled to prevent misuse and ensure only authorized users can perform privileged activities. Because of their power, privileged accounts are high-value targets for hackers, who can abuse their access rights to steal data and damage critical systems while evading detection. Unrestricted access to privileged accounts can lead to significant security risks, as it grants virtually unlimited permissions that can be misused intentionally or accidentally.

Shared accounts and passwords create security, auditability, and compliance issues, making it difficult to tie actions performed with an account to a single individual. PAM reduces the attack surface by eliminating shared accounts and standing or excess privileges.

Privileged users include administrators, engineers, DevOps personnel, database operators, and privileged business users who require elevated access to perform their roles. Privileged identities encompass both human and nonhuman accounts — such as AI, IoT devices, and automation tools — that require privileged access to critical systems and data. Digital transformation and the growth of artificial intelligence have increased the number of privileged users in the average network, complicating security management.

Over-provisioning of privileges can lead to a bloated attack surface, increasing the risk of malware or hackers stealing passwords or installing malicious code. The principle of least privilege is a key concept in PAM, ensuring users are granted only the access necessary to perform their job functions. Only users and processes that require privileged access should be granted such permissions, minimizing unnecessary exposure and risk.

PAM helps organizations enforce the principle of least privilege, which restricts access rights and permissions for users, accounts, applications, systems, and devices to the minimum necessary for authorized activities.

Privileged session management (PSM) involves monitoring and managing all sessions for users, systems, applications, and services that involve elevated access and permissions. PAM technologies support session monitoring and recording, which enable IT and security teams to watch and analyze privileged user behaviors. Privileged session monitoring is a key security measure for tracking and analyzing privileged user sessions to detect suspicious behavior and ensure compliance with regulations.

Monitor and record privileged account sessions for suspicious activity to ensure compliance and security. Conducting Regular Audits involves reviewing access rights and user permissions periodically to detect anomalies. PAM strategies strengthen organizational security posture by shrinking the number of privileged users and accounts, protecting privileged credentials and enforcing the principle of least privilege.

Privileged credentials include usernames, passwords, API keys, cryptographic keys, SSH keys, and certificates required to access and operate privileged accounts. Credential theft is a significant risk, as attackers can steal login information to gain access to a user’s account and sensitive organizational data.

A key aspect of privileged access management is discovering how privileged passwords are used across different systems and platforms. This involves identifying all privileged accounts and credentials, understanding where privileged passwords are stored, and monitoring their usage to reveal potential vulnerabilities. Knowing how privileged passwords are managed and accessed is critical for maintaining security and preventing unauthorized access.

Utilize a secure vault to store and manage privileged credentials, encrypting them to prevent unauthorized access. Password Vaulting refers to securely storing and rotating credentials for privileged accounts. Credential vaults are used in PAM to securely store and manage privileged credentials, ensuring that users must authenticate to access them.

The use of salts and encryption within centralized vaulting protects privileged passwords and reduces the risk of reuse or exposure.

Access management within PAM focuses on how privileged access is requested, approved, granted, monitored, and revoked. Modern PAM solutions can automatically restrict privileges in real-time based on risk or threat detection. Establish and enforce a comprehensive privilege management policy to govern how privileged access and accounts are provisioned and managed.

Implement role-based access control (RBAC) to restrict network access based on the roles of individual users within the organization. Conduct regular reviews and audits of privileged access to ensure compliance and identify potential security issues.

Many compliance regulations require that organizations apply least privilege access policies to ensure proper data stewardship and systems security. Improper access management can lead to significant security risks, making robust PAM policies essential.

Privileged identity management extends PAM beyond human users to include machine identities, service accounts, and automated processes. PAM is essential for managing non-human identities, such as agentic AI and IoT devices, to prevent expanded attack surfaces.

The explosion of non-human identities and the proliferation of machine accounts add significant security complexity to IT environments. PAM tools can automate the discovery, management, and monitoring of privileged accounts and credentials, which is essential for scaling security in large IT environments.

Service accounts are non-human accounts used by applications, scripts, and services to interact with systems and cloud resources. These accounts often hold persistent elevated access and are frequently overlooked.

Service accounts often require remote access to systems, which must be secured and monitored to prevent unauthorized activities. Secure remote access solutions are integrated with privileged access management (PAM) to ensure that remote connections to critical systems are controlled and audited.

Just-in-time (JIT) privilege elevation allows users to receive elevated privileges temporarily for specific tasks, reducing the need for shared privileged accounts and excessive privileges. Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) is the principle that no user should have permanent administrative rights under PAM practices.

Privileged user management focuses on lifecycle control, onboarding, offboarding, and behavioral monitoring. PAM replaces manual password management and access control with automated, policy-based security controls.

Implementing PAM best practices minimizes the potential for a security breach occurring and helps limit the scope of a breach should one occur. Insider threats who abuse their valid privileges can cause significant damage, with breaches costing an average of USD 4.92 million.

Privileged access security addresses internal and external threats. Bad actors, partners, malicious insiders, and simple user errors comprise the most common privileged threat vectors. The misuse of privileged access is a cybersecurity threat that can cause serious and extensive damage to any organization. Secure privileged access is essential to prevent unauthorized activities and privilege escalation, ensuring that only authorized users can perform sensitive actions within enterprise environments.

Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all privileged accounts to add an extra layer of security. PAM tools can enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all privileged accounts to add an extra layer of security.

PAM helps organizations gain more visibility into and control over privileged accounts and activities without disrupting legitimate user workflows.

Elevated access refers to temporary or permanent permissions that exceed standard user access rights. Employ just-in-time (JIT) privilege practices to grant temporary access to privileged accounts for a limited time when a user has a justifiable need.

PAM reduces the attack surface by eliminating shared accounts and standing or excess privileges. Over-provisioned access is one of the most common contributors to security incidents involving critical systems.

Privileged account management focuses on discovery, classification, credential rotation, and auditing. PAM solutions often include features such as privileged account management, privilege management, and privileged session management to control how privileges are assigned, accessed, and used.

PAM tools can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud, or with a hybrid approach, and they can help organizations manage privileged accounts and credentials effectively.

Effective PAM implementation is mandated by major regulations and many cyber insurance providers to ensure sensitive data governance.

Privilege management ensures elevated permissions are tightly controlled and automatically restricted when no longer needed. Just-enough access ensures users receive only what is required for a task, for the shortest possible time.

Conduct regular reviews and audits of privileged access to ensure compliance and identify potential security issues. Continuously improve PAM policies and technologies as organizational needs and security landscapes evolve.

Privileged Access Management in 2026 focuses on reducing identity-based risk with dynamic security models instead of permanent access.

Some identity-centric platforms, including approaches similar to those used by EveryKey, emphasize continuous verification and presence-based access signals to reduce reliance on long-lived privileged credentials while maintaining secure access to critical resources.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) delivers significant benefits to organizations seeking to secure their IT environments and sensitive data. By implementing privileged access management PAM, organizations can dramatically reduce the risk of unauthorized access and security breaches, which can lead to costly financial losses and reputational harm. PAM enhances access management by providing granular control over who can access critical systems and when, ensuring that only authorized users can perform privileged activities.

Another key benefit is improved compliance. PAM helps organizations meet stringent regulatory requirements and industry standards by offering robust auditing, reporting, and policy enforcement for privileged access. Automated password management features within PAM solutions eliminate the need for manual password resets and reduce the risk of password-related vulnerabilities. Real-time monitoring and reporting of privileged activities further streamline IT operations, enabling security teams to quickly detect and respond to suspicious behavior. Ultimately, privileged access management empowers organizations to operate more efficiently and securely, while maintaining full visibility and control over privileged access.

Despite the robust controls offered by privileged access management, several common threats can undermine its effectiveness if not properly addressed. Insider threats remain a significant concern, as employees or contractors with privileged access may intentionally or accidentally misuse their elevated permissions to access sensitive data or disrupt operations. External attackers frequently target privileged accounts through tactics like phishing, malware, and brute-force attacks to gain access to critical systems.

Unauthorized access can also occur when privileged accounts are not adequately secured or when access controls are weak or misconfigured. Attackers may exploit vulnerabilities to escalate privileges, move laterally within the network, or crack privileged account passwords. These risks are compounded by the use of shared accounts and insufficient monitoring of privileged activities. To counter these threats, organizations must enforce least privilege principles, implement strong multi-factor authentication, and maintain continuous oversight of privileged access management PAM environments.

To maximize the effectiveness of privileged access management, organizations should adopt a set of best practices tailored to their unique IT environments. Enforcing least privilege is essential — users should only be granted the minimum access necessary to perform their roles, reducing the risk of excessive privileges being exploited. Multi-factor authentication should be required for all privileged access to add an extra layer of security beyond traditional passwords.

A robust password management policy is also critical, including regular rotation of privileged passwords and secure storage using encrypted vaults. Limiting the use of shared accounts and ensuring that all privileged activities are thoroughly audited and logged helps maintain accountability and traceability. Integrating PAM solutions with existing identity and access management systems provides a unified view of access rights and streamlines access management processes. Regular security audits and risk assessments should be conducted to identify vulnerabilities and ensure that privileged access management PAM controls remain effective and up to date.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a cornerstone of effective risk management strategies in modern organizations. By tightly controlling privileged access, PAM helps reduce the attack surface and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and critical systems. This proactive approach to access management mitigates the risks associated with privileged accounts, including insider threats, external attacks, and accidental misuse.

PAM solutions provide real-time monitoring and detailed reporting of privileged activities, enabling organizations to quickly detect and respond to security incidents. This visibility is crucial for identifying potential risks before they escalate into major breaches. Additionally, privileged access management PAM supports compliance with regulatory requirements, further reducing the risk of penalties and reputational damage. By integrating PAM into their risk management frameworks, organizations can better protect their assets, ensure business continuity, and maintain trust with customers and stakeholders.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) plays a vital role in strengthening an organization’s incident response capabilities. With PAM solutions in place, security teams gain real-time visibility into privileged activities, allowing them to quickly identify and contain security incidents involving privileged accounts. Detailed logging and monitoring of privileged access provide valuable forensic data, helping organizations understand the scope and impact of a breach.

By limiting the use of privileged accounts and ensuring that all privileged access is audited, PAM reduces the likelihood and potential impact of security incidents. Integration with incident response tools and processes enables a coordinated and efficient response, ensuring that threats are addressed promptly and effectively. Privileged access management PAM not only helps prevent breaches but also empowers organizations to respond decisively when incidents occur, minimizing damage and supporting rapid recovery.

Privileged access management is used to control, monitor, and secure elevated access to systems, applications, and sensitive data.

Privileged accounts have elevated permissions and are high-value targets. If compromised, they can allow attackers to move laterally, disable controls, and access sensitive systems.

PAM reduces risk by enforcing least privilege, eliminating standing access, securing privileged credentials, and monitoring privileged sessions.

PAM supports regulatory compliance by providing auditing and reporting capabilities required by regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.

PAM is a subset of IAM that focuses specifically on privileged accounts, elevated access, and high-risk systems.