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5 Key Findings on the Importance of Integrating Identity Governance and Privileged Access Management

This blog is co-authored by PwC, CyberArk and SailPoint.   

Today’s security and compliance environment is rapidly transforming, presenting new and even more advanced challenges that no single solution or vendor alone can fully address. That’s why we like to think of security as a “team sport”.  Security needs to be a powerful ecosystem of technology partnerships that can provide holistic, tailored solutions to meet today’s organizations evolving security needs. 

This is why PwC, CyberArk and SailPoint have come together to provide a multi-faceted approach to enterprise security, all working cohesively together delivering an integrated solution and service offering that is comprised of Identity Management and Governance and Privileged Access Management (PAM).  

Many organizations have invested heavily in identity technologies and processes to address risks, compliance and operational gaps associated with the management of digital identities and access. But as adversaries develop increasingly sophisticated attack techniques, businesses have been forced to reassess the capabilities of their identity solutions. While all components of Identity should be under consideration, a rash of breaches involving privileged credentials has increased the focus on securing the access rights of privileged users.  To help protect data from internal and external threats, organizations need to manage the entire lifecycle of privileged accounts and credentials.

Forrester Research has estimated that 80 percent of security breaches involve theft of privileged credentials[1].  These adversaries can easily identify and target these types of privileged accounts to gain a foothold within a corporate network and infiltrate systems across the enterprise.

This is why securing enterprise organizations with integrated Identity Management and Governance and PAM is a critical component to an overall security and Zero Trust model. 

This is the goal of course, but we wanted to better understand if organizations are in fact subscribing to this approach.  To hone in on this, we asked over 200 enterprise organizations about their Identity Management and Governance and PAM solutions and integration. 

  • Of the survey respondents, 72 percent had implemented an Identity Governance solution and 83 percent had implemented a PAM solution however, over three quarters (77 percent) reported that they had not integrated the two solutions. This practice can result in inconsistent access processes and policies across silos of tools, leading to faulty reporting and failed audits.
  • A staggering 80 percent of the survey’s respondents said they had experienced cases of privileged access being incorrectly or over-assigned. The risks of poorly managed privileged accounts are significant and can include unauthorized exposure to sensitive data, alteration of files, and downtime of critical systems and applications.
  • When asked if they can currently run certifications, audits and reports that include both non-privileged and privileged accounts, nearly 2/3 of the respondents indicated that they were not able to.  The best way to truly control and govern all user access is by integrating these solutions.
  • 90 percent of the survey’s respondents said they were concerned that the lack of a unified access policy across all accounts was creating an inconsistent access experience for users.  An integrated identity Management and Governance and PAM implementation can correct this issue and can enable businesses to securely manage identities, quickly respond to incidents and help facilitate regulatory compliance.
  • And lastly, it shouldn’t come as a surprise in today’s tenuous environment that 100 percent of these surveyed organizations, indicated that they are worried about hidden, unprotected credentials in their environment – such as dormant or orphaned, backdoor or service privileged accounts. 

Integrating CyberArk and SailPoint, helps you:

  • Increase productivity with automated privileged account access based on corporate policies
  • Close security gaps and significantly reduce, redundant manual processes throughout the employee lifecycle
  • Strengthen security and reduce risk by removing privileged access blind spots
  • Meet compliance regulations and protect against sophisticated attacks

By creating this security integration with PwC, CyberArk and SailPoint, enterprises can help ensure that key identity functions are secure and automated, authorization policies are enforced, and privileged and non-privileged user access activity is documented and compliant.

Read this whitepaper and learn about the leading practices for integrating Identity Management and Governance and PAM solutions and the risks and challenges faced by organizations that have not properly integrated both solutions.

Download The Whitepaper Now


[1]The Forrester Wave™: Privileged Identity Management, Q4 2020 by Sean Ryan and Elsa Pikulik, November 18, 2020


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