High cost of Privileged Access Management preventing deployment

Keeper Security has released findings from its Privileged Access Management Survey: Deployment Amid Economic Uncertainty. 

The report explores global insights from IT and security executives, revealing that while IT leaders consider PAM solutions critical to their security stack, cost constraints and complex solutions are impacting deployment. 

Fifty-six percent of respondents tried to deploy a PAM solution but did not fully implement it, and 92% cited overly-complex solutions as the main reason. 58% of IT teams have not deployed a PAM solution because traditional platforms are too expensive.

PAM solutions are critical, but high costs and complexity are barriers to deployment

Today's organisations need agile identity security solutions to protect against cybersecurity threats by monitoring, detecting and preventing unauthorised privileged access to sensitive data and critical resources.

An overwhelming 91% of IT leaders say their PAM product has given them more control over privileged user activity, decreasing the risk of insider and external breaches. Despite the benefits, nearly two-thirds of IT leaders (62%) revealed the downturn in economic conditions would likely cause them to scale back their current PAM platform. 

Macroeconomic pressures may tempt businesses to cut back on security as budgets tighten, but its more important now than ever for organisations to deploy PAM. 

"Organisations risk of data breaches and cyberattacks increases exponentially if they have not deployed a PAM solution," says Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security. 

"Most successful breaches involve stolen or compromised credentials and the escalation of privileges via lateral movement. Organisations need simple, affordable PAM solutions to stay ahead of cybercriminals. The industry must evolve, providing solutions that include the features modern IT leaders need."

Survey respondents revealed the need for simpler solutions that are fast provisioning and easy to use, citing complexity as decreasing deployment. The report found 56% of respondents tried to deploy a PAM solution but didn't fully implement it, while 92% said they didn't because it was too complex to do efficiently.

IT leaders need simpler, more powerful solutions

PAM products often require substantial dedicated staff to operate, which is a barrier to adoption for organisations with limited staff and resources. PAM solutions that are easy to deploy and maintain are critical, but the industry lacks these solutions. In fact, 85% of IT leaders surveyed say their PAM requires a dedicated staff to manage and maintain.

Survey respondents indicated a strong desire for a smaller-scale PAM solution, citing the following top three benefits: Easier to manage/maintain (70%); Easier to integrate into existing tech stack (55%); Lower cost/not paying for features the organisation doesn't need (44%).

When asked which functionalities are essential, the main PAM features respondents said are most frequently used by their organisations include: Two-factor authentication (62%); Role-based security (58%); Reporting/auditing (51%).

Lower costs and ease of use will drive broad PAM adoption 

"Today's IT leaders are in a challenging position navigating the modern threat landscape and widespread budget and staffing cuts," says Guccione. 

"They need a modern PAM solution that combines password, secrets and privileged connection management capabilities, protecting their most sensitive systems with solutions that are quick to deploy, affordable and easy to understand and integrate."