Privileged Access Management Best Practices All IT Teams Should Follow

 

The cost of a data breach has never been higher. In 2024, the average cost was $4.9 million—a 10% increase over the past year, and the highest total ever. That’s coupled with an increase in breaches involving shadow data—unmanaged or unknown copies of sensitive data that can evade standard security controls.

Protecting this data starts with controlling who can access it. And that’s why privileged access management best practices are becoming increasingly essential for businesses of all sizes and sectors.

As cyberthreats evolve, IT and security leaders must adopt proactive strategies to manage privileged accounts. In this article, we'll explore how implementing best practices for privileged access management can help protect sensitive data, improve visibility, and support compliance, all while simplifying access for authorized users.

Key takeaways 

This accountability is central to an effective privileged access management strategy.

• Privileged access management (PAM) is essential to protect against costly data breaches by securing elevated access to sensitive systems.
• Applying least privilege and role-based access controls ensures users only access what’s necessary for their roles.
• Effective PAM includes tools like just-in-time access, multi-factor authentication, and secure credential vaults.
• A successful PAM strategy depends on scalable, user-friendly tools that simplify access control and compliance.
• Addressing challenges like user resistance, legacy systems, and credential sprawl is crucial for sustainable PAM adoption.
  

What is privileged access management, and why is it critical? 

Privileged access management (PAM) is a critical cybersecurity framework that combines systems, policies, and tools that control and monitor elevated access to sensitive systems and data.

Rather than a single solution, PAM is a framework that answers three essential questions: Who has access? What are they doing with it? And why do they need it? 

Without a strong PAM strategy in place, organizations risk exposing credentials and losing control over who has access. This vulnerability can open the door to data breaches, financial losses, or even reputational collapse.

An effective PAM framework enforces the principle of least privilege, ensuring users only have access necessary for their roles. When implemented effectively, PAM delivers:  

• Enhanced security. The biggest—and yet least measurable—benefit of privileged access management best practices is knowing your systems are secure from potential threats, internal or external, lifting a heavy burden from your IT team.
• Risk mitigation. PAM reduces the risk of unauthorized access by limiting access rights in general. This introduces the traceability needed to identify potential incidents and track user behavior, minimizing risks from the start.
• Compliance. Regulatory standards and frameworks across industries often require some level of PAM. The right systems and software can demonstrate immediate proof of compliance.
• Accountability. PAM creates a clear trail of who accessed what system, when, and for what purpose. This ensures that organizations can track suspicious behavior and hold users accountable for actions taken with privileged accounts.

Privileged access isn’t just an IT responsibility. Security, compliance, and risk management teams must collaborate with IT leaders to ensure that access controls are not only enforced, but auditable, scalable, and aligned with organizational policies. This cross-functional alignment is essential to build and maintain a robust PAM program.

To follow best practices for privileged access management, your PAM strategy should include:

• User authentication and authorization. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and similar methods to ensure that only authorized users can gain access.
• Least privilege enforcement. Grant users only the minimum level of access required for their role, and review permissions regularly.
• Session monitoring. Provide real-time oversight and playback to detect any misuse.
• Auditing and reporting. Maintain logs to demonstrate adherence to internal policies and external regulations.
• Insider threat detection. With detailed audit trials and behavioral monitoring, PAM helps identify anomalies and prevent both accidental and malicious insider threats.
• Session best practices. Use elevated accounts only for designated tasks and conduct regular work using standard accounts.

Common privileged access management challenges 

Even with the best intentions, IT teams may stumble when rolling out privileged access management. The reality is that PAM implementations often run into organizational friction and human error.

Here’s where things can go sideways:

• Blind spots: Users inevitably create workarounds when legitimate access feels too restrictive or time-consuming. This can lead to unauthorized applications outside of your PAM framework.
• Legacy systems: Older infrastructure isn’t designed with modern security protocols in mind. Retrofitting PAM controls onto outdated systems can cause challenges within your broader security stack.
• Users resist adoption: Some teams may encounter pushback against additional authentication steps and access restrictions.
• Credential sprawl: Organizations typically discover they have far more privileged accounts than anticipated, each a potential risk that demands attention.
• Tool overload and fragmented workflows: IT and security teams already juggle remote-support, RMM, ticketing, and SIEM tools. A PAM product that runs in a separate silo adds friction and adoption resistance. Prioritize platforms that embed into the tools technicians use every day to streamline, not complicate, privileged access.
• Alert fatigue and missed anomalies: Without intelligent alerting, high volumes of session logs and alerts can overwhelm teams, causing critical threats to be overlooked.
• Slow deployment and integration timelines: Proof-of-concepts pilots reach 20-30% coverage quickly, but mapping every service account, rotating credentials, and onboarding legacy workloads can stretch a full rollout over many months. A phased plan and strong team ownership are essential to finish the last, hardest 70%.
• Compliance gaps: Regulatory requirements evolve quickly, leaving teams playing catch-up during audits to prove they have the right controls in place.
• Disaster recovery and “break-glass” access: Few programs define what happens if the PAM platform itself is offline. Without a tested procedure for regaining privileged access in an outage, operations can grind to a halt and confidence in the whole initiative erodes.

10 privileged access management best practices every IT team should follow  

The security risks are quite real. So, how do you mitigate them? Consider implementing the following PAM best practices.

1. Identify and inventory all privileged accounts   

To set the stage for privileged access management best practices, start with a strong discovery phase. Review IT security policies and procedures to identify privileged accounts in your organization, such as:

• Local or domain accounts
• Service accounts
• Embedded credential accounts
• Cloud admin accounts
• Emergency (break-glass) accounts 

These accounts are often at a higher risk of misuse due to their elevated privilege levels and ability to access otherwise restricted files, settings, and program data. For example, some organizations may have more privileged accounts than employees, highlighting the importance of discovery. Schedule periodic discovery scans so newly created servers, SaaS connectors, or shadow service accounts are captured before they introduce risk.

Tools like help automate discovery and integrate with directories, simplifying your inventory and reducing blind spots.

2. Enforce the principle of least privilege

Malicious or negligent actions often exploit gaps between a user’s assigned privileges and their actual usage. Keeping an eye on these gaps helps spot potential security incidents before they escalate.

A defined user access management (UAM) policy can set a baseline for privileged accounts while monitoring and tracking tools ensure those standards are being followed.

The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is an especially effective way to minimize the risk of a breach (and limit the damage should one occur). Stolen credentials cause up to 80% of data breaches. This emphasizes the importance of granting users only the minimum access necessary to perform their roles and nothing more. 

ScreenConnect Privileged Access facilitates PoLP enforcement, allowing administrators to configure access permissions based on role. Monitoring how assigned access compares to actual usage helps identify misalignments or insider threats.  

3. Implement role-based access controls (RBAC)   

Another approach is , which restricts system access based on a user’s role within the organization. For example, you might grant a Tier 1 support technician access to user tickets but not the full system’s configurations or backups.

To implement this model, you and your IT team will need to:

• Clearly define roles and responsibilities within your organization, specifying the associated access needs.
• Separate key duties among different roles to minimize risk and ensure no single individual has excessive control over critical processes.
• Map each role to its required privileges, then review and adjust those mappings whenever teams, tools, or compliance requirements change to keep RBAC aligned- with real-world workflows.

Privileged Access supports RBAC by allowing admins to restrict access based on technician roles or the endpoints they manage, ensuring each user gets access to only what they need, when they need it.

4. Use just-in-time access to limit standing privileges   

Just-in-time (JIT) access only allows users temporary access to privileged accounts when needed to complete their tasks, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

Pairing this approach with a PAM software solution enables you to monitor and grant access requests in real time, set access expiration parameters, and log all privileged session activities.

Privileged Access supports session-based access, single-use credentials, and auto-expiration, helping eliminate standing privileges and improve overall auditability.

5. Deploy multi-factor authentication for all admin accounts

MFA, which requires two or more verification factors to log in, is a non-negotiable cybersecurity best practice. Breaches like the Colonial Pipeline could have been prevented with MFA in place.

For effective implementation within a PAM framework, consider the following best practices:

• Combine multiple verification methods: Use a blend of authentication factors, such as something the user knows (password), something they have (a token or smartphone), and something they are (biometrics).
• Integrate adaptive authentication: Commonly seen in cloud services, this practice adjusts security based on contextual factors like the user’s location, device, or access time, restricting access when a login attempt seems unusual.
• Mandate MFA across all privileged accounts: Rather than an optional addition, multi-factor authentication works best as a rigid security policy, especially for privileged users.

MFA can be integrated seamlessly into your elevated session workflows, reinforcing your security stack for greater reliability.

6. Store credentials in a secure vault with rotation policies 

Just as the most sophisticated lock is worthless if the key is left out in the open, digital login credentials are all too often left exposed in easily accessible locations. As mentioned earlier, up to 80% of breaches involve stolen or reused credentials. 

Rather than keeping static passwords in a vault, ScreenConnect Privileged Access creates one-time, encrypted credentials that expire automatically at the end of the session. This eliminates shared admin passwords altogether, so nothing is left to steal or reuse. If your environment still requires a traditional vault, integrate PAM with it for legacy use cases but rely on ephemeral credentials wherever possible. Finally, document a break-glass method for accessing critical systems if the PAM platform itself is offline.

7. Continuously audit and monitor privileged sessions 

Visibility is essential to modern PAM. Without robust session auditing, organizations lack the visibility to trace actions or respond quickly to suspicious activity. Several tools and techniques exist for detecting and responding to potential security incidents, including:

• Recording and logging of privileged access and actions
• Automated alerts for suspicious activities or violations
• Regular compliance checks and security audits
• Streaming logs to your SIEM or RMM and applying intelligent alerting thresholds to reduce noise and prevent alert fatigue

When suspicious activities are detected, organizations should have procedures in place to respond quickly and effectively.

ScreenConnect Privileged Access offers real-time session logging and detailed audit trails. This helps your team detect threats as they emerge and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements. 

8. Implement a zero-trust architecture 

The idea that trust should never be assumed is the foundation of a zero-trust policy. Zero-trust eliminates implicit trust by treating every user, system, or network as untrustworthy by default. Rather than relying on traditional perimeter-based security, zero-trust shifts the focus to continuous verification of each access request, regardless of the source.

For example, even an employee at your headquarters must re-authenticate every time to access payroll data. This approach limits lateral movement and stops attackers from exploiting internal trust.

Zero-trust policies are often layered with other authentication methods to prevent unauthorized access.

9. Train users on privileged access policies and security awareness 

Sixty-eight percent of breaches involve human error, according to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report. This underscores the need to make training your first and last line of defense.

End users are your first and final line of defense against intrusions, so training programs and PAM education should be a top priority. This could include providing regular updates on best practices or delving into role-specific training for team members who use (or grant) privileged credentials.

Ensure that all employees receive basic access management training during onboarding and at regular intervals, adding additional education on privileged accounts for relevant employees as needed.  

10. Review, revoke, and refine access regularly 

Cybercrime is an ever-evolving threat, and combating it requires two things: adaptability and scalability.

You might start by conducting regular risk assessments and refining your PAM policies accordingly. For growing enterprises, starting early is the key. This enables you to set sustainable, scalable solutions that keep you ahead of emerging threats.

Real-time access control in ScreenConnect Privileged Access enables immediate revocation, without waiting for directory syncs or scheduled policy updates.

Choosing the right privileged access management tool 

Implementing all these privileged access management best practices may seem overwhelming. And it certainly can be—without the right tools. That’s why many organizations leverage software solutions to simplify and streamline their PAM strategies. 

Consider how these solutions address key aspects of access and privileged user management:

• Identity and access management (IAM): Often bundles tools related to user identities, such as single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication.
• Network access control (NAC): Protects the networking side of the equation, offering solutions for device authentication, network segmentation, and secure access protocols.
• Security information and event management (SIEM): Enables real-time insights into user activity and security events, with features like log management, event correlation, and threat detection.
• Data loss prevention (DLP): A final layer of defense that focuses on key stages of data—discovery, classification, and protection.

Realistically, organizations won’t be able to employ all these software solutions, and doing so would likely only complicate things further.

A strategic mix—anchored by a flexible, easy-to-deploy PAM solution—keeps costs down and reduces operational complexity.

Educate end users

According to one report, the human element is present in 68% of data breach incidents.

End users are your first and final line of defense against intrusions, so training programs and PAM education should be a top priority. This could include providing regular updates on best practices or delving into role-specific training for team members who use (or grant) privileged credentials. 

Ensure that all employees receive basic access management training during onboarding and at regular intervals, adding additional education on privileged accounts for relevant employees as needed.

Key features to look for in PAM solutions 

Implementing the right PAM solution is essential to streamlining your cybersecurity strategies. What constitutes the “right” solution depends very much on your specific needs.

Choose a PAM software that includes:

• Scalability: Your PAM solution should accommodate your organization’s growth without requiring architectural overhauls. Look for platforms capable of handling a range of sizes and industries while maintaining consistent performance and security.
• Session auditing: Real-time session recording and detailed activity logs provide the capabilities you need for compliance or incident response. The best solutions offer details into privileged user actions, keystroke logging, and screen capture functionality along with intelligent, noise-reducing alerts that integrate with your existing SIEM or RMM.
• Secure credential storage: Automated password management with encrypted vaults eliminate many security risks. Even stronger, look for options that can generate credential-free, single-use admin sessions and include a documented break-glass procedure if the PAM layer is offline.
• MFA and JIT access: Find a PAM platform that integrates with existing MFA infrastructures. This will ensure that legitimate users get the access they need when they need it.
• Ease of use for both IT admins and end users: The most secure solution becomes a liability if it’s too complicated or challenging to use. Prioritize a platform that offers the security you need while also being easy for users to navigate.

PAM built for secure, stress-free operations 

When managing privileged access, it’s easy to get bogged down by complex systems or juggling multiple tools with overlapping features. But simplicity and security don’t have to be mutually exclusive. That’s where a specialized PAM solution can make all the difference.

ScreenConnect Privileged Access delivers enterprise-grade protection without the complexity that comes with many traditional PAM deployments.

• Least privilege by default. Every access request starts from zero permissions, with users receiving only the specific rights needed for their immediate tasks.
• Temporary single-use credentials. Generate credentials that expire automatically when a session ends.
• Real-time access control. IT techs can grant or revoke permissions immediately with easy-to-use tools.
• End-user elevation requests fright from the UAC prompt. Users request just enough privilege for a specific task, the approval is secure, and credentials are never exposed.
• Integrated or standalone—one lightweight agent powers it al Run Privileged Access on the same ScreenConnect instance or plug it into ConnectWise RMM/PSA, Slack, and Microsoft Teams without re-architecting the existing tech stack
• Purpose-built for IT teams and MSPs. Both MSPs and internal IT departments get the same powerful access management tools designed for their specific needs.

Whether you’re looking for a PAM solution that fits into your current systems or need something that stands on its own, Privileged Access provides the flexibility and security you’re after—without the need for additional software or complicated integrations.  

Lock-down credentials, not productivity. Begin your free 14-day trial of ScreenConnect Privileged Access.