As enterprises increasingly adopt cloud-based architectures and embrace zero-trust security models, the dependence on privileged access management (PAM) needs a re-think. Identity is now the most critical security perimeter, and Privileged Identity Management (PIM) presents a more comprehensive approach for managing access in modern, distributed environments.
The Shortcomings of PAM in a Cloud-Driven World
As organizations increasingly adopt Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions, workforce identities have become the dominant way users perform privileged activities across enterprise systems. With SSO, users can seamlessly access a wide array of applications and services using their individual credentials, making the reliance on shared credentials for privileged access outdated. In this environment, PAM—which traditionally relies on vaults to store shared credentials—is no longer effective or scalable. The shift toward using workforce identities for privileged activities has fundamentally changed how users interact with critical systems. Every member of the workforce, from administrators to standard employees, may have access to sensitive data or systems at various points, effectively giving them some level of privileged access. As a result, identity has become the cornerstone of security control, and managing individual identities and their privileges through PIM is critical to maintaining a secure environment. Ultimately, PAM is not designed to manage access dynamically. When credentials are checked out from a vault or an individual uses their existing account via SSO, they are granted without considering the context of the specific task at hand. This results in standing access—permissions that remain in place until they are manually revoked or expire. In the fast-paced, distributed environments that define modern enterprises, this static approach creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. Credential compromise, according to the 2024 Data Breach Investigation Report by Verizon, is one of the biggest threats to an organization, and shared credentials are a prime target.
Taking this further, in today’s cloud-based environments, where workloads and users are distributed across multiple platforms, the idea of using shared credentials for privileged access is increasingly seen as a security liability. Shared credentials are not only difficult to manage but also make it challenging to attribute actions to specific users, which is a fundamental requirement in a zero-trust model. There is a more efficient and effective way to invest in your organization’s security model: Privileged Identity Management.
The Rise of PIM and Identity-Centric Security
Privileged Identity Management (PIM), on the other hand, is designed to address the challenges of managing privileged access in a cloud-native, zero-trust environment. Unlike PAM, which focuses on managing shared passwords, PIM is centered around managing individual identities and their associated privileges.
Shared credentials, now recognized as more of a risk than a feature, are increasingly impractical in this new environment. They lack the necessary context for secure access decisions and often lead to standing access—precisely the type of vulnerability that zero-trust seeks to eliminate. By managing individual identities and their associated privileges, PIM aligns with the zero-trust model, ensuring that access is always contextually appropriate, continuously reassessed, and consistently applied.
The use of shared credentials, including shared passwords, limits the ability to positively identify the individual person, process, or device that accessed a protected resource. Defense in depth is often utilized to prevent password authentication from being the only control in place to prevent unauthorized modification.
— NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-82r3 (Revision 3), Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security
In a world where Single Sign-On (SSO) and identity as a perimeter are becoming the norm, managing identities rather than just credentials is crucial. PIM allows organizations to grant and revoke access based on the user’s role, the context of their request, and the specific tasks they need to perform. This ensures that access is granted only when needed and is automatically revoked once the task is complete, significantly reducing the risk of standing access.
Allowing the user to login is not the same as allowing the user to access everything. With PIM, users might be able to login to critical systems, but they won’t have any permissions within those systems, therefore rendering their credentials / identities useless, unless the specific task and context requires such access. Even so, with PIM, users will have access to the specific resources demanded by their current tasks and the context of the access, and not to everything within a target system.
For example, a PAM system might allow a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to checkout a shared credential through which they are able to access AWS. Once there, they have access to all resources, including all customer data. With PIM, if an SRE is working on a specific ticket that has the appropriate approvals for emergency access to AWS, and they are currently on duty, and they have the right location of the access, then they are granted access to those AWS resources that are required to resolve the specific ticket they are working on.
The Shift Toward Zero-Trust
The zero-trust security model assumes that threats can come from anywhere—inside or outside the network. This model requires that all users, whether inside the corporate network or accessing systems remotely, be continuously authenticated and authorized based on their identity, the device they’re using, and the context of their request.
In this environment, the concept of shared credentials becomes impractical and dangerous. Managing access based on identities rather than passwords ensures that access is granted dynamically and contextually. PIM provides the necessary framework to implement this level of granular control, enabling organizations to meet the security demands of a cloud-native, zero-trust architecture.
The Future is Identity-Centric
As enterprises continue to adopt cloud architectures and zero-trust security models, the limitations of PAM are becoming more apparent. PIM represents the future of secure access management, focusing on the management of individual identities rather than just shared credentials. By aligning access decisions with the principles of zero-trust, PIM ensures that privileged access is granted only when necessary and revoked immediately after use, significantly reducing the risk of standing access and enhancing overall security.
In this new security paradigm, where identity is the perimeter, managing identities—not passwords—becomes critical. As organizations move toward this model, the shift from PAM to PIM will be essential to maintaining robust security in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.