IT Brief New Zealand - Technology news for CIOs & IT decision-makers
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BeyondTrust expands Identity & Access Security platform
Fri, 5th May 2023

BeyondTrust has delivered multiple product innovations through Q1 of 2023 to enhance its solutions and add advanced, customer-centric capabilities to its Identity & Access Security platform.

Privileged Remote Access 23.1 brought to market new Infrastructure Access Management functionality enabling developers, cloud ops engineers, and technical workers to securely and more easily access critical business resources. 

The release includes:
Streamlined Access Console 
Grants developers and cloud ops engineers exclusive access to authorised systems, fostering productivity and focus.

New SQL Database Proxy 
Boosts user experience and delivers a thorough audit trail by enabling seamless database connections via familiar local tools like Azure Data Studio.

Additional Cloud Automation API Scripts
Simplifies system creation and access control in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP by automating manual tasks and offering detailed insights into system access and activities.

The new features enhance productivity for technical workers and provide admins with greater control of secure access to their systems.

Privilege Management for Windows & Mac 23.1 and 23.2 introduced new features and capabilities to help customers secure their endpoints, reduce their attack surfaces, make achieving least privilege simple for organisations that often have understaffed and overstretched security teams, and protect their organisations against threat actors of all shapes, sizes, and creativity levels.

With total Microsoft vulnerabilities reaching an all-time high of 1,292 in 2022 (a 7% increase over last year) and Elevation of Privilege continuing to dominate the vulnerability landscape for the third year in a row (accounting for 55% of the total Microsoft vulnerabilities), BeyondTrust's innovations to its Endpoint Privilege Management solutions provide advanced protection against privilege-based threats.

Highlights include:
Streamlined Activity Tracking 
Equips security and IT teams with a comprehensive and transparent information source on all changes made to policies, users, computers, and computer groups, simplifying collaboration and the compilation of audit trails for security audits and compliance requirements.

Enhanced SIEM Integration with Elastic Common Schema (ECS) Format 
Introduces an improved integration method with SIEM tools using the Elastic Common Schema (ECS) format for a more streamlined approach, ensuring comprehensive visibility of event data within customers SIEM solutions and enabling more effective monitoring of all activities and detection of potential threats.

Optimised Application Rules Management 
Make policy adjustments swiftly and effectively, with the ability to enable or disable application rules or definitions within a policy.

Enhanced Endpoint Connection Status Monitoring 
Offers organisations a user-friendly, real-time method for tracking the connection status of all endpoints within their estates to Privilege Management for Windows and Mac, enabling rapid remediation of disconnected accounts to maintain reduced attack surfaces and compliance.

Efficient Computer Duplication Filtering 
Empowers organisations to declutter their computer lists and effortlessly locate required devices by filtering out duplicate entries.

Q1 Technology Alliance Program Highlights

In the world of cybersecurity, no single solution can address every use case. In a recent Dimensional Research study examining how Identity Issues Impact Zero Trust Effectiveness, 99% of companies indicated the need for zero trust solutions to integrate with numerous other applications. 

The same report found that 93% of respondents had an identity-related incident in the last eighteen months, with 81% indicating two or more incidents; 93% of those companies reported their identity issues stemmed from integration problems. 

The BeyondTrust Technology Alliance Program (TAP) is focused on enabling seamless integrations to empower customers to address these challenges. In the first quarter of 2023, the team expanded the Identity Ecosystem with key partners.

Key developments for Q1 include:

  • Announced availability of BeyondTrust Intelligent Identity and Access Security solutions in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
  • Announced a new Jamf partnership for better managing and securing Mac endpoints.
  • Extended integrations to include Robotic Process Automation (RPA) partners like Blue Prism and UiPath, ensuring the security of non-human identities.
  • Established new HSM or Hardware Security Module integrations with Thales, Dinamo, Entrust, and Fortanix helping to provide even further levels of security and encryption.
  • Certified several Passwordless multi-factor authentication solutions, including Beyond Identity, BIO-key, BlokSec and authID; combining passwordless solutions with BeyondTrust ensures that only authorised users and secure devices can gain access to privileged accounts on critical systems. 

By maximising the BeyondTrust solution through these integrations, customers can reduce attack surfaces quickly, unlock advanced inter-product use cases and workflows, and improve productivity and efficiency for customers.

"Securing identities and access is critical to combatting today's cyberthreats. We continue to invest in innovation to enable visibility and control of all identities and access pathways, detect advanced identity threats, and automatically remediate gaps and adjust policies," says Marc Maiffret, Chief Technology Officer, BeyondTrust.

"I am extremely proud of our technical teams and partner ecosystem for helping our customers address their biggest cybersecurity challenges, while also delivering an exceptional customer experience."