Password management is the process of protecting and managing passwords throughout their lifecycle, from creation to closure, by adhering to a set of sustainable practices. This is achieved with the help of a password manager that stores privileged credentials using a built-in encrypted vault.
As IT environments expand, passwords proliferate, and with more passwords to protect, a centralized password management routine becomes critical.
Types of password management
Password management can be roughly divided into "personal password management" and "enterprise password management".
Personal password management
Personal password management is specific to the individual and involves a set of security best practices to protect a user's personal information such as email accounts, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, bank accounts, contact addresses, phone numbers and locations.
Enterprise password management
Enterprise password management (also known as privileged password management) is an integral part of an organization's IT security—managing and protecting the credentials of corporate accounts with elevated access. This practice utilizes a centralized secure repository with a strong vault setting to store the accounts of local administrators and domain administrators, as well as root accounts, service accounts, application and system accounts.
- The Importance of Privileged Password Management
While all forms of password management are equally important, the secure management of privileged account passwords has become increasingly prominent recently as more organizations fall victim to cyberattacks due to poor password protection. Password compromise is the easiest way for hackers to gain administrative access to critical information systems and leak business-sensitive data. Hackers are always looking for static and weakly privileged passwords, allowing them to pass through corporate networks without detection. - Possibility of privileged passwords being stolen
Phishing emails are one of the most common methods used by hackers to steal administrator login credentials, and despite constant warnings from security experts, these email scams are extremely popular among hackers.
According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 82% of security breaches involve human factors, including social attacks, errors, and abuse. This allows hackers to easily deploy keylogging malware to capture all credentials used on that particular system. Similar methods include login spoofing, shoulder surfing attacks, brute force attacks, and password sniffing.
By exposing a single privileged account password through these attacks, hackers can gain unrestricted access to an organization's IT infrastructure and cause irreparable damage. To deal with such attacks, organizations should focus on devising a smart approach to storing, protecting, managing, and monitoring privileged passwords.
Password management in network security
Demonstrating a strong security posture requires an ongoing effort on the part of the organization. It calls for strengthening the fundamentals of a portal as a critical asset, and these points emphasize the importance of password management in enterprise workflows, helping to establish strict password hygiene and ensure system resiliency.
- Provide centralized, secure access to data protection
- No need to manually manage passwords
- Helps effectively manage key passwords
- Enable grant granular access
- Facilitate secure password sharing between teams
Provide centralized, secure access to data protection
By deploying a password manager, critical accounts and credentials across the enterprise can be discovered regularly and consolidated under one roof. This provides one-click access to target computers and applications without the need for manual password entry. This paves the way for centralized management of sensitive information.
No need to manually manage passwords
The traditional approach of handling passwords in spreadsheets and monitoring individual account vulnerabilities is a daunting task. Sharing the spreadsheet with any non-administrative user could allow malicious insiders to easily infiltrate the corporate environment. But vaulting credentials is an impactful approach to cybersecurity that enables single sign-on users to access enterprise resources and applications. With a password manager in place, remembering unique passwords is no longer a hassle.
Helps effectively manage key passwords
Enforcing a strict password policy ensures cyber hygiene and protects critical corporate data. Since passwords can be both a way into a network and a source of income for hackers, establishing a password reset schedule is ideal, preferably every 60-90 days. Today, password managers come with built-in password generators that enable users to create strong, complex, and random passwords based on preset password policies. These practices eliminate password fatigue and protect sensitive data from a range of risks.
Enable grant granular access
IT teams should grant and revoke access to critical resources based on the merit of the requester's needs. This access provisioning complies with the principle of least privilege (POLP), for example in the following scenario:
- Database administrators who need access to the base distribution number to run certain queries and authenticate users in the directory.
- Developers who need access to the server to test run their applications.
- Third-party users and contractors who require access to internal portals and applications.
Password managers allow limited role-based access based on who the user claims to be, and eliminate long-term privileges when an employee leaves the company. This allows administrators to eliminate the risks posed by these permissions and remove excessive permissions immediately.
Facilitate secure password sharing between teams
Collaborative tasks, such as working on shared documents or multi-user applications, require passwords to be shared between teams. In this case, the password manager enables secure sharing without actually revealing the credentials. Users can then easily monitor the secure sharing of passwords to prevent future incidents, even if automatic password resets are triggered.
Best Practices for Securing Privileged Passwords in the IT Ecosystem
- Create an inventory of all key administrative accounts that have elevated privileges or provide administrative access to the workstation and store it in a secure location, making sure the accounts are encrypted at rest using a strong algorithm such as AES-256.
- Protect and manage privileged accounts using strong password policies, regular password resets, and selective POLP-based password sharing.
- Control retrieval of privileged credentials by enforcing granular restrictions on any user requiring administrative access to any IT resource.
- Requiring the IT director to approve every password access request makes the workflow stronger through a dual control mechanism, requiring at least two senior IT officials to oversee and approve such requests.
- Allow only genuine users who have passed multiple authentication stages to retrieve passwords, thus associating each password-related activity with a valid user profile.
- Use passwords moderately for third-party vendors and contractors who regularly access internal systems for business purposes, i.e. ensure that the accounts provided to them only have the limited permissions they need to work.
As technology advances, automated password management best practices require the use of reliable solutions for secure data processing. What helps organizations is investing in password managers that provide a centralized console for enterprise password management. , manage user activity, and maintain 24/7 vigilance against cyberattacks.
What is a password manager
A password manager is a solution (like Password Manager Pro) that helps businesses and individuals discover, store, and manage their sensitive credentials and accounts. The password manager includes built-in features to generate strong and unique passwords for applications and services, regularly rotate and randomize passwords based on predefined password policies, and generate comprehensive password-related reports to meet compliance requirements.
How Password Management Software Works
Password management software goes one step ahead of traditional enterprise password vaults to ensure that access to each endpoint is routed in a secure manner. Deploying software like PMP supports provisioning of access purely based on the concept of ownership and sharing, as the user sees fit based on assigned Roles perform tasks, and while this division allows for fine-grained access control to be implemented, it also helps to group users with similar roles and assign permissions during bulk operations.
Cloud vs. local password managers
Categorizing password managers based on deployment method and user experience leaves us with two main types: on-premises and cloud-based password managers. However, this classification does not affect the level of security provided by them. Providing users with the same level of security experience by deploying any of these types to access critical credentials, and choosing the right password manager is based purely on its convenience as well as the size of your organization. Let’s learn about other aspects that differentiate between on-premises and cloud-based password managers.
| Local password manager | Cloud-based password manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment mode | Deploy (or self-host) and control within enterprise infrastructure. | Deployed centrally on a public or private cloud and delivered as SaaS by a service provider or OEM, eliminating the need for additional hardware and software setup. |
| Deployment cost | On-premises passwords are expensive to set up, operate, and maintain because they require additional costs, including physical servers, maintenance personnel, and deployment assistance, resulting in significant capital expenditure costs. | Cost-effective deployment involving only web-based license purchases with ongoing OpEx costs. |
| upgrade | The in-house maintenance team performs regular software updates by manually applying upgrade packages. | Product upgrades are typically deployed by software OEMs. |
Simplify enterprise password management
When it comes to protecting critical enterprise data, using passwords is at the top of the list of authentication methods, including biometrics, certificates, keys, and tokens. While passwords are inherently preferred because of their binary nature, they are susceptible to abuse and risk. Even the smallest effort to decrypt sensitive credentials can compromise business infrastructure.
Password Manager Pro is a secure vault for storing and managing shared sensitive information such as passwords, documents and digital identities of your enterprise. It ensures that enterprise assets are hardened when accessed from multiple networks, demographics and remote endpoints. By deploying such tools, enterprises can ensure an improved security posture and remain resilient to cyberattacks over the long term.