Expanding Identity Access Management (IAM) and Zero Trust principles to encompass all administrative accounts

Expanding Identity Access Management (IAM) and Zero Trust principles to encompass all administrative accounts

In the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare technology, the focus on ensuring the security and protection of sensitive patient data has never been more critical. One key area of concern is managing privileged access, a challenge that healthcare IT teams are addressing head-on to support a zero-trust security model.

To tackle these challenges, strategies centred around controlling, monitoring, and minimising privileged access are being adopted. One such strategy involves enhancing the visibility and monitoring of privileged accounts, addressing the common issue of a lack of awareness over who holds these privileges, thereby increasing risks of unauthorised activity. Implementing Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions offering real-time monitoring and audit trails enables strong oversight and accountability of privileged user actions.

Another crucial strategy is avoiding over-provisioning of privileges. Granting excessive or unnecessary privileges to users creates security vulnerabilities. Adopting a principle of least privilege, where users receive only the access they need for their roles, significantly reduces attack surfaces.

Eliminating shared privileged accounts is another key focus. Shared accounts prevent individual accountability and complicate tracking misuse. Replacing them with individual accounts managed through PAM solutions bolsters traceability and incident investigation.

Automating and centralising credential management is another essential aspect. Manual or decentralised management of privileged credentials, such as storing passwords in spreadsheets, is risky. Centralised vaults with automated credential rotation enhance security and reduce risks from stolen or leaked access.

Integrating multifactor authentication (MFA) and strong identity verification is also vital. Legacy systems and unverified password resets remain weak points. Enforcing phishing-resistant MFA and secure identity verification for all privileged access guards against unauthorised entry.

Supporting role-based access across complex, multi-platform environments is another challenge. Healthcare IT features diverse clinical and operational systems across on-premises, SaaS, and legacy environments. PAM solutions must consistently manage identities and enforce policies across these heterogeneous platforms to ensure comprehensive protection.

Implementing continuous auditing, risk detection, and forensic analysis is also essential to detect unauthorised access or suspicious behaviours promptly. Continuous monitoring combined with advanced analytics helps maintain security and compliance in a highly regulated environment.

Addressing workforce dynamics specific to healthcare is another consideration. High staff turnover and rotating shifts require access management solutions that can rapidly provision and deprovision privileges with precision to avoid care delays or excess permissions.

Embedding PAM in a broader zero-trust framework is another important aspect. Zero-trust security assumes no implicit trust inside or outside the network. PAM strategies should enforce strict access controls, verifying every request and continuously monitoring privileged sessions to mitigate insider threats and external attacks.

Protocol translators are used to link Identity and Access Management (IAM) and identity providers, bridging the gap between older and newer protocols in healthcare IT. Examples of solutions for legacy system challenges include credential injection, where IAM systems push credentials during an interactive session, and just-in-time accounts, where the IAM creates or enables an admin account only when needed, then disables it as soon as the user's task is completed.

The new PAM goal is "zero standing privilege," ensuring that no account has default admin privileges. The IT design principle of zero-trust security requires a sophisticated identity and access management system. A challenge in IAM is handling corner cases, such as administrative and privileged access management for diverse infrastructure like UPS systems, network switches, firewalls, embedded out-of-band server management, and legacy applications and operating systems.

In conclusion, healthcare organisations tackling PAM challenges to achieve zero-trust should deploy advanced, automated, and auditable PAM solutions that minimise privileged access, enforce identity verification (including MFA), integrate across diverse IT environments, and maintain continuous oversight of privileged activities. This approach protects sensitive patient data, ensures regulatory compliance, and mitigates risks from both external and insider threats.

1. To guarantee the security of sensitive patient data in the healthcare industry, controlling, monitoring, and minimising privileged access is paramount, especially with Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions offering real-time monitoring and audit trails.
2. In healthcare IT, reducing attack surfaces can be achieved by following the principle of least privilege, as it ensures users receive only the access they need for their roles, eliminating over-provisioning of privileges.
3. Implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) and secure identity verification, such as phishing-resistant MFA, with strong identity verification for all privileged access, guards against unauthorized entry in legacy systems and during unverified password resets.
4. PAM solutions should consistently manage identities across complex, multi-platform environments, enforcing policies across on-premises, SaaS, and legacy systems to ensure comprehensive protection of patient data.
5. Healthcare IT must tackle workforce dynamics specific to healthcare, rapidly provisioning and deprovisioning privileges with precision to avoid care delays or excess permissions due to high staff turnover and rotating shifts.

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