Overview: Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Quick Definition

Privileged Access Management refers to processes, technologies, or security measures taken to limit system or information access on a need-to-know or need-to-use basis. In an environment with careful privileged access management, for example, simply logging into a desktop session does not enable access to critical features and workflows.

Instead, users must further authenticate each time they wish to use a critical feature or start a critical workflow from their desktop computing session, even when they were required to authenticate at login.

Privileged access management is generally considered to be a security best practice, and is a key component of authentication in "zero trust" environments.