The fastest PAM programs we've been part of shared a few things. Here are four you can lean on for quick wins and to demonstrate immediate value.
The fastest wins in PAM are the high-risk accounts with the most privileges across the most systems. You can vault and rotate those quickly, and the moment you do, you've closed off the paths attackers want most. That's a measurable result you can present to leadership in weeks, not months, after an engagement starts.
High-Risk, High-Privilege Accounts
Biggest security win, least work
High-Use Accounts
Accounts spreading hashes across your network
High-Risk Service Accounts
Woven in before local accounts
Local OS Accounts
Lower complexity, broader surface area
Service & Application Accounts
Most complex, longest to secure — tackle only after everything else is locked down
Don't lead with service accounts. If you lead with service accounts, you end up spending precious time working through them while the other easy-win accounts with arguably larger risk run wild in your environment.
Holding out for the perfect setup is one of the bigger time sinks we see. You don't need the strictest possible control on day one. Find a balance between security and usability that people can live with, get it running, then tighten it as the program matures. A control that's live and most of the way there beats a perfect one that's still being designed.
Trying to remediate your entire org in one go is a sure way to stall a project. When you engage with your company, use a team-by-team approach. This helps you make steady progress and lets you tailor each rollout to each team based on how they actually work. Small, steady reps move faster than one big push.
Momentum matters. When leadership and each team can see what PAM is doing for them early on, they stay behind the project and become your biggest advocates. Get the quick win, show it off, and use that goodwill to fund the next phase.
Lean into it, get the quick win, show the value, and let the program build on itself. If you want help getting to that first win quickly, please reach out.
Let's get your PAM program delivering measurable results in weeks, not months.
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