Privileged Credentials

The digital transformation of enterprise IT has dramatically increased the challenge of protecting business-critical applications. This transformation has introduced new challenges and complexities when it comes to ensuring the security of these applications. It is true that, the threat from bad actors with compromised privileged credentials is a real and growing threat.

It is true that compromised privileged credentials are a major contributor to data breaches. Privileged credentials refer to accounts that have elevated permissions, such as those of system administrators or database administrators, which provide access to sensitive data and critical systems. When these accounts are compromised, attackers can gain unfettered access to an organization's network, applications, and data, potentially resulting in significant damage.

Cybersecurity statistics indicate that there are 2,200 cyberattacks per day, with a cyberattack happening every 39 seconds on average and the cybercrime is predicted to cost $8 trillion by 2023.

As per Forrester, 80% of all data breaches are a result of compromised privileged credentials. CyberArk surveyed over 1,400 IT and business stakeholders to find out significant gaps between how well business leaders believe they are securing their business-critical applications – and the reality.

If these scary facts have worried you about the type and quantity of information you have shared with numerous companies and organizations, you should know there is a silver lining. More than half of the information stored by the typical company is stale. People change their phone numbers, addresses, emails, and even bank account numbers fairly regularly. So, even if a hacker gets his hands on your data, the chances are it’s not that useful.

Moreover, it’s not only human access that has to be considered. Today, applications also have privileged access and this is increasingly important to understand with the rise in adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Attackers relentlessly look for an organization’s vulnerabilities. Risk is constantly evolving – from human users to DevOps to applications to machines – modern organizations must also be agile and adopt the mindset and practice for continuous process improvement.

There is need for implementing strong security practices, such as regular monitoring, strong access controls, multi-factor authentication, and employee training, can help mitigate the risk of privileged credential compromise can better protect their business-critical applications in the face of evolving threats and the challenges posed by the digital transformation of enterprise IT.