Four Ways to Protect Passwords Like They’re Privileged Credentials

Healthcare protected privileged passwords PAM

The healthcare industry handles some of the most sensitive data and passwords, including patients’ personal health information.

As a result, healthcare organizations are highly regulated and must implement strict security controls to protect customers’ privacy. Despite these measures, healthcare data breaches frequently make news headlines, often resulting in reporting to regulatory bodies and the customers followed by fines and legal issues.

1) Implement Privileged Access Management

Healthcare providers have the leverage to partner with Cyberark Endpoint privilege manager that enables them to apply Role Based Access Control to their applications. Cyberark PAM provides an endpoint privilege management capability to onboard all your applications in use and access management to privilege accounts and passwords. CyberArk is built with granular policies that enables organizations to implement access controls tight to the concept of least privilege.

2 ) Integrate Single Sign-On or

3) Multi-Factor Authentication

The benefits of Cyberark are the ability to integrate with Ping Identity services like Single Sign-on (SSO), Multi-factor authentication (MFA). With SSO, a user can access many applications after authenticating with the first application. This minimizes the burden of password management that may lead to account compromise.

With MFA, application users are required to authenticate an app by making use of a password which is something they know and a combination of something they have. This can be a PIV Token with TLS certificates configured the third form of authentication is who the user claim to be such as a biometric feature (Fingerprint, palm scan, etc.)

4) Generate Audit Trails and Compliance Reports

An enterprise-wide approach to application protection should provide real-time visibility into users’ access activity. For example, security admins need the ability to determine which employees have accessed a specific application during a particular time with the ability to view the time and devices used. But what happens to visibility after a user logs in? Security controls must continue past the point of authentication. Enterprises should look for ways to require an extra layer of protection that allows them to monitor and record all actions taking place once a user is logged in.

Considering today’s compliance demands, it’s important to ensure any records surrounding high-risk actions taken in apps are backed up by a full audit trail. Cyberark PAM also has the capability to produce compliance reports of accounts that are not compliant with security best practices.

Benefits

  • Visibility and control over every step of an application user’s journey
  • Low-level granularity enables precise allocation of user access entitlements.
  • Unified view delivers resource efficiencies.
  • Access credentials managed equally effectively across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid domains.

In Summary:

  1. Implement Privileged Access Management: Solutions like CyberArk provide granular access policies to control access to sensitive applications and accounts. This helps prevent unauthorized access and protects passwords.
  2. Integrate Single Sign-On: With SSO, users can access many applications with one set of login credentials. This minimizes the number of passwords to manage and reduces the risk of compromised accounts.
  3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication: MFA adds an extra layer of security for application access by requiring not just a password but also something the user has like a PIV token or biometric. This makes accounts more difficult to break into.
  4. Generate Audit Trails and Compliance Reporting: Solutions should provide visibility into who accessed which applications and when. Audit trails and compliance reporting help ensure policies are followed and accounts are properly managed.

With solutions like CyberArk, healthcare organizations can apply granular access policies, integrate additional authentication methods like single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, and produce audit trails for compliance. By taking an enterprise-wide approach to protecting access across all applications and devices, healthcare providers can reduce risk while maintaining productivity. Overall, CyberArk delivers visibility, control, efficiency, and protection for critical applications and data.

Learn more about identity transformation in healthcare.

Author: Tom Bonham, IDMWORS, Practice Director/ Architect