Third-party vendors are essential to organizations, but each vendor an organization adds widens its attack surface and can introduce various security risks, such as data leaks or data breaches. To effectively manage vendor access and prevent security threats, organizations must conduct thorough vendor risk assessments, implement least-privilege access, establish clear vendor access policies, require MFA, log vendor activity, update vendor access and ensure vendors comply with industry standards.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a subset of Identity and Access Management (IAM) that specifically addresses controlling access for users who work with the most sensitive systems and data within an organization, such as IT, information security and DevOps personnel. Among other tasks, PAM enforces the principle of least privilege, which grants users the minimum level of systems and data access they need to do their jobs.

According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 75% of cyber attacks involve exploiting compromised privileged credentials, making privileged access one of the most sought-after attack vectors. Additionally, 60% of organizations cite insider threats as the primary cause of data breaches, highlighting the critical need to secure privileged accounts against both external and internal threats.

Integrating Privileged Access Management (PAM) with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions offers many benefits for organizations, including enhanced threat detection, improved visibility, reduced risk of insider threats, simplified compliance and more. Continue reading to learn more about the benefits of integrating PAM with SIEM solutions and best practices for integrating the two.

Organizations are prioritizing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) strategy to prevent cybercriminals from accessing privileged accounts and conducting malicious activities. A key component of this strategy is securely managing privileged access requests and ensuring that access is granted only when necessary, properly authenticated and monitored in real time.

On January 16, 2025, an Executive Order 14144 was issued, aimed at strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity defenses. This order comes at a crucial time – during the fiscal year 2023, U.S. federal agencies reported over 32,000 cybersecurity incidents, reflecting a 5% increase from the previous year.