The crux of remote security lies with protecting systems, data, critical access, and communications in IT environments where users, devices, and services are not within the traditional on-premises infrastructure or inside the periphery of enterprise network. As remote work and cloud-based operations have surged, the attack surface has expanded significantly. Securing digital assets while being exposed to remote access by internal users, third-party users, or external stakeholders has been a challenge. 

Many organizations today extend their IT operations beyond internal users to include a broad range of external stakeholders—third-party vendors, partners, contractors, technicians, and other external IT personnel. In many cases, granting these external users access to critical systems is not optional but essential for supporting key business functions, especially those involving remote privileged operations. 

IT administrators are often left asking: 

• Who is accessing business-critical systems? 

• What is the purpose of access? 

• When was the system accessed? 

• How long did the session last? 

• Is this a regular pattern of remote access? 

These unanswered questions create a cloud of uncertainty. The discomfort grows when external users connect using personal devices that may fall outside the scope of the organization’s IT compliance standards. The risk is amplified if these individuals hold privileged access—potentially exposing sensitive assets to vulnerabilities beyond the control of internal IT teams. 

About ARCON’s Global Remote Access (GRA) 

ARCON’s GRA has been acknowledged by global SRM (Security and Risk Management) leaders for its holistic approach towards remote security. ARCON | GRA provides security to enterprise IT infrastructure along with maintenance and support in the most secure way without the hassles of implementing VPNs or any other additional installations (which is more typical). It just allows IT administrators to establish a secure remote desktop connection and helps end-users control their own systems remotely.  

Moreover, ARCON | GRA is an automated tool which is why the time taken in raising requests for privileged rights (through traditional methods) by end-users is zeroed down. This privilege elevation happens in a secure manner and enhances the enterprise identity lifecycle management. From an administrative perspective, it allows enterprise IT security admins to control the end-users’ systems/ applications remotely and help them to elevate admin rights, grant permissions, or change of credentials, in a secure manner. 

Recently, ARCON added three unique features to the solution that can address multiple remote security challenges and fulfill requirements from IT administrators/ SRM teams. 

Let us delve deeper and check out the three features. 

Remote Connection with Multiple Display 

During scenarios when IT administrators need to monitor/check multiple remote user activities simultaneously, it might not be possible for them to do so at a single glance. 

This GRA feature supports access to multiple displays simultaneously, allowing users to view and interact with content across multiple screens remotely. 

Archive and Purging of Video Logs, Users and Devices  

While it is highly imperative to get real-time video logs of remote users, it could be a challenge for the IT administrators to keep a track of the number of videos – considering hundreds of users accessing multiple systems/ applications at different hours for different reasons through multiple devices. 

With this feature of GRA, the admins can archive video logs and session logs along with users and devices. It also helps in purging video logs and session logs. 

GRA Thick Client  

GRA Thick Client is a standalone application within ARCON Global Remote Access (GRA) that allows secure and seamless remote access to enterprise systems. Unlike web-based solutions, the Thick Client provides enhanced performance, offline capabilities, and advanced security features, making it ideal for IT administrators and privileged users requiring remote access to critical infrastructure.  
1. Secure Remote Access  
2. Comprehensive Session Management  3. Enhanced Performance  
4. File Transfer & Collaboration  
5. Audit & Compliance  
6. Support Web streaming, RDPS, P2P 

Conclusion 

Remote Security concerns today have escalated to a huge extent considering the trends of hybrid work environments and flexible working hours. A robust and enterprise-level remote access security tool like ARCON | GRA helps organizations secure their confidential business assets by authorizing and authenticating remote users with their devices anywhere, anytime. The three new features added to the solution offer additional benefits both from an authorized access control and administrative perspective. 

As enterprises grow, the volume of data they generate and manage expands continuously. This ever-increasing data demands strong safeguards for security, integrity, and privacy. While implementing robust access controls is essential, it’s not enough that data remains vulnerable if stored in unsecured or poorly designed systems. Organizations must adopt a zero-trust approach to protect critical business information, ensuring that every access and storage layer is continuously verified and secured.  

Hence, the context behind building ARCON | My Vault lies in the growing challenges organizations face in managing and securing sensitive digital assets—like passwords, SSH keys, certificates, and confidential files—in an increasingly complex IT ecosystem. 

Brief about ARCON My Vault solution 

ARCON | My Vault is a secure, cloud-native (also available on-premises) solution designed for enterprises to store, manage, and share sensitive files, secrets, and credentials. Built on a microservices framework, it offers robust security and operational efficiency for IT teams handling confidential data. 

• Safely stores critical assets like passwords, SSH keys, certificates, and software patches in an encrypted format, with options for time-bound access and automatic deletion. 

• Enhances security posture by whitelisting the file types that should be supported in the My Vault Application; rest of the files are automatically blacklisted/ restricted 

• Implements granular access permissions, ensuring users access only the data they’re authorized to, adhering to the principle of least privilege. 

• Facilitates the secure sharing and management of secrets and files, including features like ownership transfer and download restrictions to prevent unauthorized access. 

• Provides real-time audit logs and monitoring capabilities, enhancing transparency and compliance with security standards. 

• Helps the users of My Vault who can request to download/ share/ transfer data files from the owner who has uploaded publicly with file request permission. 

• Seamlessly integrates with ARCON’s Privileged Access Management solution, allowing for centralized control over privileged accounts and sensitive data. 

ARCON | My Vault is particularly beneficial for organizations aiming to enhance their data security posture, streamline IT operations, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Recently, ARCON added three unique features to the solution that can address multiple industry use cases and fulfill requirements from the IT risk management teams. 

Let us delve deeper and check out the three features. 

My Vault DRM tool 

Use Case: Suppose any user is required to upload/share data files to My Vault to protect them from unauthorized access. In that case, the data owners typically log in to My Vault whenever they wish to upload anything. It is time-consuming, frustrating, and risky as well. Once integrated with My Vault, the DRM (Data Risk Management) tool helps users upload/ share data files to the DRM folder without security worries. The data files in the DRM tool eventually get uploaded to My Vault, which keeps all the files in sync.  

This tool enables users to seamlessly sync files and folders with My Vault, ensuring secure and centralized storage. It safeguards digital content by regulating how it is accessed, shared, and distributed, empowering data owners to retain full control over their intellectual property while preventing unauthorized usage, duplication, or piracy. 

Cross Domain Sharing/ Collaboration  

Use Case: If there is any requirement for any user to collaborate with third-party users/ partners or anyone from external domains, data security becomes a concern. While sharing confidential and critical data files/ folders, how does My Vault ensure security while internal users collaborate with users from external domains?   

My Vault enables secure file and folder sharing across user domains, facilitating seamless collaboration with external stakeholders. With granular permission controls set within the Vault, cross-domain users must complete two-factor authentication (2FA) before accessing any shared content — ensuring an added layer of security and access accountability. 

Dynamic Secrets Management  

Use Case: Enterprise secrets are sensitive information critical to a business’s security, competitiveness, and operations. Unauthorized access to these secrets can lead to security breaches, financial loss, reputational damage, or competitive disadvantage. These secrets include authentication credentials, tokens, encryption keys, configuration secrets, etc. There could be catastrophic consequences if any of these enterprise secrets are compromised.  

ARCON My Vault helps organizations protect valuable data, including PINs, web applications, certificates, services, and SSH keys. It involves implementing robust practices to ensure the security of sensitive information. 

Conclusion 

ARCON My Vault is an essential information security solution in modern enterprise use cases. It offers a centralized repository to protect, store, and share confidential business information and secrets securely. The three new features added to the solution offer additional benefits from a data security and administrative perspective. 

In an increasingly interconnected digital world, cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern—it’s a business imperative. Recognizing the urgent need to fortify Europe’s digital infrastructure, the European Commission introduced the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)—a groundbreaking legislative proposal aimed at boosting the cybersecurity of products with digital elements across the EU. 

The EU Cyber Resilience Act seeks to harmonize cybersecurity requirements across all hardware and software products that connect directly or indirectly to other devices or networks. This regulation complements existing EU legislation like the NIS2 Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by focusing specifically on the security of digital products throughout their lifecycle. 

Objective Behind Inception of EU CRA 

In response to the significant challenges brought about by this digital transformation, the European Union has introduced a comprehensive set of guidelines aimed at mitigating cyber threats and vulnerabilities. These measures are designed to safeguard the Union’s economy, protect its businesses, and ensure the safety and privacy of its citizens—including consumer data protection and digital health security.  

The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation EU 2024/2847) are intended to: 

• Ensure secure digital products by design and default 

• Enhance transparency regarding cybersecurity features 

• Minimize compliance fragmentation across the EU 

• Promote accountability for manufacturers and software developers 

The scope of the EU Cyber Resilience Act 

The Act has an extensive scope, addressing the entire supply chain within the European Union—from manufacturers to importers and distributors of products with digital elements (PDEs). 

What sets this regulation apart is its practical and unified approach. While existing EU laws impose cybersecurity requirements on specific categories of digital products, there has been no overarching, horizontal framework that uniformly applies to all PDEs. The Cyber Resilience Act fills this critical gap by establishing consistent and comprehensive cybersecurity standards across the board. 

The CRA applies to all products with digital elements—this includes: 

• Consumer electronics (smartphones, wearables, routers) 

• Industrial control systems (IoT devices used in manufacturing) 

• Software (both standalone and embedded) 

• Critical infrastructure technologies 

It also targets the manufacturers, importers, and distributors of these products operating within the EU, even if they are headquartered outside Europe. This broad scope means that any company offering digital products in the EU market must comply, regardless of its physical location. 

What are the Key Obligations? 

EU organizations impacted by the CRA must: 

• Conduct cybersecurity risk assessments during product development 

• Implement security-by-design principles and ensure secure default settings 

• Provide documentation such as technical files and vulnerability handling processes 

• Report exploited vulnerabilities within 24 hours to the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) 

• Maintain post-market support, including timely security updates 

Most importantly, failure to comply may result in significant penalties—up to €15 million or 2.5% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. 

Why It Matters: Significance of CRA for EU Organizations 

The significance of this act lies in establishing the first-ever EU-wide mandatory cybersecurity requirements for hardware and software products. By addressing vulnerabilities throughout the product lifecycle—from design to post-sale support—the Act enhances the digital security of consumers, businesses, and critical infrastructure. It promotes greater transparency, accountability, and resilience across the entire supply chain, helping the EU build a more secure and trustworthy digital economy. 

• Enhanced Trust and Market Advantage: Complying with the CRA will boost consumer trust in secure products, offering a competitive advantage to proactive organizations. 

• Legal Certainty and Streamlined Compliance: The CRA provides a single set of rules across the EU, reducing legal ambiguity and administrative burdens. 

• Stronger Cyber Resilience Across Supply Chains: With mandatory risk management, the CRA strengthens entire supply chains, improving collective cybersecurity posture. 

• Alignment with Global Standards: The CRA aligns with global cybersecurity frameworks, positioning EU organizations as leaders in secure product development. 

Preparing for CRA Compliance: Role of ARCON | Privileged Access Management (PAM) 

It is clear that securing privileged access is pivotal to meeting the requirements of the EU Cyber Resilience Act. In an environment where identity forms the foundation of every human and machine interaction across interconnected systems and applications, Privileged Access Management (PAM) has emerged as a critical layer of security component. With rising concerns around data security and privacy, implementing a comprehensive PAM solution—built on a strong and secure architecture—can significantly enhance an organization’s security posture and play a key role in strengthening overall cyber resilience. 

ARCON’s Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution is purpose-built to address the complexities of managing privileged identities, offering an advanced layer of security that enforces strict access controls based on the principles of ‘need-to-know’ and ‘need-to-do’. The solution comprises several key components, including Access Control, Multi-Factor Authentication, Credential Management, Just-in-Time Privileges, Session Monitoring, Audit Trails, and Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR). Together, these elements empower IT security teams to establish strong perimeter defenses across IT systems, endpoints, and sensitive data—while also supporting the development of a robust Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) strategy. 

ARCON PAM helps EU organizations meet these requirements through several key capabilities: 

1. Secure-by-Design Architecture 

ARCON PAM ensures that privileged access to critical systems is governed by least privilege principles, significantly reducing the attack surface and aligning with the CRA’s requirement for built-in security features. 

2. Risk-Based Access Controls 

The platform provides context-aware, role-based access controls to sensitive systems, helping organizations enforce strict access policies in line with the CRA’s emphasis on minimizing cybersecurity risks. 

3. Robust Monitoring and Audit Trails 

CRA mandates logging and monitoring of cybersecurity incidents. ARCON PAM offers real-time session monitoring, detailed audit trails, and alerting mechanisms to detect and respond to suspicious privileged activity—ensuring transparency and accountability. 

4. Vulnerability Check 

By tightly controlling and monitoring privileged access, ARCON PAM reduces the potential for unauthorized actions and unpatched vulnerabilities to be exploited—supporting the CRA’s requirement for proactive threat mitigation. 

5. Compliance 

The solution provides automated compliance reports and analytics, aiding organizations in documenting their adherence to CRA guidelines and demonstrating due diligence during audits or assessments. 

6. Threat Detection and Response 

ARCON PAM enables rapid incident response and forensic analysis through its session recording and log management, aligning with CRA mandates on breach reporting and post-market cybersecurity management. 

Conclusion 

The EU Cyber Resilience Act marks a major shift in the EU’s approach to cybersecurity, placing shared responsibility on those who create and distribute digital technologies. This is a pivotal opportunity for organizations to integrate cybersecurity into core business practices—not just to comply but to lead in a safer digital future. 

Excessive end-user privileges pose significant security risks, leading to unauthorized access and potential breaches. Many of the most notorious security incidents—ranging from data theft and insider attacks to cyber-espionage and application misuse—stem from uncontrolled endpoint privilege access.  

The shift to cloud and hybrid work environments has further intensified these risks, as employees increasingly access critical applications remotely from personal devices. This expanded attack surface, with multiple layers of applications and devices, makes business-critical assets more vulnerable to cyber threats. 

ARCON’s Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) solution helps organizations enforce least privilege access on endpoints. It prevents unauthorized privilege escalations, mitigates insider threats, and reduces the risk of malware attacks by granting users only the necessary privileges required for their tasks. ARCON EPM provides centralized control, real-time monitoring, and policy enforcement to ensure secure endpoint management while enhancing operational efficiency and compliance. 

In addition to the above, recently ARCON has added three unique features to the solution that can address multiple industry use cases and fulfill requirements from the IT Risk management teams. Let us delve deeper and check out the three features. 

Offline Elevation 

Use Case: When network engineers or client servicing staff need to access critical applications or process any service/ task remotely, especially from a non-internet or poor internet zone. They can raise an offline elevation request for time-based and need-based access/ permission to the admin. After the admin (or any designated authority) receives an offline elevation request, analyzes its importance, and gives permission for time-bound access/ elevated access to the staff to accomplish the desired task with the help of ARCON | EPM. 

Benefit: Offline elevation addresses a key business need by enabling request elevation in environments where internet access is unavailable/ poor. 

Outside PAM/ CI Monitoring/ Restriction 

Use Case: When users try to access critical applications outside PAM or Converged Identity (CI), malicious processes/ intentions could be involved. ARCON | EPM helps admins verify whether any user is onboarded in PAM or CI. If the user is not onboarded, then all the activities are automatically monitored and logged by EPM. 

Benefit: With this feature, admins can track and restrict activities outside PAM on Windows/ Linux/ Mac. 

Centralized Process Inventory 

Use Case: During endpoint activity monitoring/ assessment/ evaluation in a large IT environment, if the admins find any old software version/ unpatched software posing a security risk, they update/ uninstall the anomalous software to circumvent any catastrophic situation. With ARCON | EPM, admins can verify that all applications are incorporated and configured with the appropriate tools to keep the software applications up to date. Moreover, it helps the admins to view this list of applications and avoid purchasing a new license for the requested software put forward by the end-user using this module. 

Moreover, with the help of the ‘Centralized Process Inventory’ feature, EPM can generate a “Central Inventory Report,” a comprehensive document that offers detailed information on all inventory items within an organization. Users can uninstall applications with admin approval, ensuring organizational policies and control over software management align with operational needs and prevent unauthorized modifications. 

Benefit: ARCON | EPM helps maintain a centralized repository of all processes running on endpoints, where admins can uninstall or update software applications if anything malicious or anomalous is found. 

Conclusion 

With the three new features added to the ARCON | Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) solution after testing and approval, the solution is stronger now and offers additional benefits both from an end-user and administrative perspective. 

As digital transformation accelerates, the importance of securing privileged access to critical systems and data assets becomes paramount. Privileged Access Management (PAM) has emerged as a cornerstone of cybersecurity, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure from insider threats, external attacks, and compliance risks. In 2025, PAM is expected to play a pivotal role in safeguarding digital ecosystems, driven by technological advancements and evolving threat landscapes.  

Broadly, the reasons behind increasing demand for PAM include proliferation of identity-based attacks, supply chain attacks, and state-sponsored cyber activities. Threat actors increasingly target privileged credentials to gain unauthorized access, making PAM indispensable. Rapid expansion of hybrid work models introduces challenges in managing and securing remote access to critical systems. PAM solutions provide secure access mechanisms, ensuring employees and contractors only access what they need. 

Through this blog, ARCON tries to explore the predictive roles and importance of PAM in 2025 and beyond. 

Predictive Roles of PAM in 2025 

• AI-Powered Threat Detection 

PAM solutions will integrate AI and machine learning to identify and mitigate threats in real time. Behavioral analytics will detect anomalies in privileged account activities, preventing potential breaches. 

• Zero-Trust Architecture Enabler 

PAM will act as a foundational component of zero-trust frameworks by enforcing least privilege access and continuous verification. It will integrate with identity and access management (IAM) systems to ensure end-to-end security. 

• Cloud Security Reinforcement 

With the growing adoption of multi-cloud environments, PAM will secure access to cloud resources by managing privileges across diverse platforms. Automated key rotation, credential vaulting, and secure access workflows will mitigate cloud-specific risks. 

• Integration with DevSecOps 

As DevSecOps gains traction, PAM will ensure secure access to CI/CD pipelines, source code repositories, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools. It will prevent unauthorized modifications and protect against insider threats. 

• Supporting IoT and OT Environments 

PAM will expand to manage access to IoT devices and operational technology (OT) systems. This will address vulnerabilities in industrial control systems (ICS) and critical infrastructure. 

Key Features of Future-Ready PAM Solutions 

There is a string of features that will remain dominant in the PAM solutions that are future-ready. Here is a brief analysis. 

• Unified Access: Centralized control and monitoring of privileged accounts across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments is going to be a must-have. 

• Granular-level Access Controls: Role-based access controls (RBAC) to enforce least privilege principles, session monitoring and recording of privileged sessions for accountability and audit purposes will remain a key factor. 

• Just-In-Time (JIT) Access: The essence of having the right person accessing the right systems at the right time for the right purposes is distinct. So, assigning JIT privilege rights can address unauthorized access and unnecessary access. 

• Automated Workflows: Automated provisioning and de-provisioning of privileged accounts is going to be in demand. Also, integration with IT service management (ITSM) tools to streamline access requests will also be crucial. 

• Comprehensive Auditing and Reporting: Detailed audit logs to track privileged activities and meet compliance requirements and real-time alerts for suspicious activities will remain mandatory. 

Preparing for the Future 

Organizations must prioritize implementing or upgrading their PAM solutions to meet the demands of 2025. Key steps include: 

• Conducting a comprehensive privileged account inventory. 

• Transitioning to AI-driven PAM solutions for real-time threat detection. 

• Integrating PAM with existing security frameworks and workflows. 

• Providing ongoing training and awareness programs for employees and administrators. 

Conclusion 

As cyber threats evolve, the role of PAM will become increasingly strategic in 2025. By securing privileged accounts, addressing privileged identity-based threats, and enabling advanced security frameworks like zero-trust, PAM will act as a linchpin for organizational IT security. Forward-thinking organizations must embrace the advancements in PAM technologies to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring the safety of their digital assets and the trust of their stakeholders. 

During the first half of the webinar, Harshavardhan from ARCON highlighted the identity-first security approach for safeguarding organizations. He also discussed how identity risk management leaders can strengthen their security posture with cutting-edge technologies. Below are the key takeaways from the first half of the session: 

• Harshavardhan started his session with very basic insights of identities and the variety of identities that exist in IT infrastructure. The evolution of digital identities is not yet over. In fact, a lot more is about to come in the next five years. 

• Digital identities drive business models with growth, efficiency, and excellence that is directly involved in profit-making and revenue generation. If we try to construct a digital identity, there are several parameters that are considered. Personal thoughts, likes, dislikes, professional details, online activities/ behaviour, which tools are used, where the information is stored/ saved etc. are taken into account. 

• If we classify the types of digital identities, there are interactive identities and non-interactive identities. Interactive identities include human identities and machine identities (bots). Non-interactive identities include mobile devices, desktops, APIs, web servers, database servers, application servers and more. 

• The typical challenges that organizations face with identities are – lack of detailed password policies, weak and reused passwords, poor role management, too many admin accounts, auditing and compliance, multiple devices per user and more. 

• Harshavardhan added that there are different identity-based attacks that are dominant in enterprises. Some of them are – Credential Harvesting, Credential Stuffing, Social Engineering, Password-based attacks, Third/ Fourth party breaches, Attacks on AD, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-hash, Shoulder Surfing and more. 

• At the same time, he explained why identity is at the core of a Zero Trust approach and Identity Centric Security will have to be built on Convergence of IAM, PAM, and IGA with Contextual Data Models. 

Harsh added his discussion with the reasons why identity-centric security is essential in modern context. They are – 

• Increased Cyber Threats  

• Remote Work and Cloud Adoption 

• Regulatory Compliance 

• Zero Trust Security Model 

• User Experience 

• Dynamic Threat Landscape  

• Integration of Emerging Technologies: OT, IoT, AI, and machine learning 

According to him, some key features of identity-centric security are – 

• Certificate-based authentication  

• Risk-based adaptive step-up authentication  

• Automated certificate lifecycle management  

• End-to-end encryption  

• Multi-cloud ready  

• Compliance management  

• Post-quantum-ready solutions  

• Built-in crypto-agility and certificate authority (CA) resilience  

• Public and private PKI  

• Centralized visibility and control of digital certificates 

Before concluding his session, Harshavardhan gave some crucial organizational details of ARCON, a brief introduction of all the IAM solutions of ARCON and how the organization is acknowledged by global analysts’ communities consecutively in the last several years. Nevertheless, Harshavardhan also added that ARCON provides its services to multiple industry segments globally and thus it caters to the essential requirements of identity-centric security approach. 

In the latter half of the webinar, Geoff Cairns from Forrester discussed why securing your organization’s core assets is more critical amid proliferation of human and machine identities. The key takeaways from his session are as follows. 

• Based on data from Forrester’s 2023 Security Survey, it has been observed that the customers are struggling with the complexity of their IT environment. The challenge is more around centralized visibility that can lead to identity sprawl such as orphan accounts over privileged users and over-permissioned accounts (or over-entitlements).  

• Geoff added that the evolving threat landscape is both internal and external. The hackers are capitalizing on identity-based attacks where legacy systems often are in tech silos leading to gaps in IT processes. This is further evidenced by organizations that have recently been in the news. United healthcare had acquired Change Healthcare a couple of years ago. During the process unfortunately, the organization failed to put MFA on some externally facing servers, and that resulted in identity abuse by phishing the credentials with the help of social engineering techniques. 

• Referring to the Forrester Security Survey once again, Geoff presented some primary drivers that resulted in purchasing of IAM solutions in the last 12 months. 26% of respondents (security decision makers responsible for IAM security) indicated that a top driver was replacing an existing IAM solution that was ineffective or too costly. 25% responded that cloud migration requires new IAM solutions to meet the necessary security and compliance requirements in the organization. 

• Continuing with the legacy IAM technology, it is a fact that with the passage of time, any IAM solution becomes less secure, inadequate robustness of the features, difficult to upgrade and costly to operate. Interestingly, it is increasing every year. The technology replacement trends that are seen in 2022, have turned more challenging in 2023 and onwards. 

• Adding to what Harsh discussed earlier, Geoff emphasized that identity-centric security is the key to adherence to the core principles of Zero Trust. 

Geoff also discussed the dynamic accelerators for identity security namely – 

• Cloud and SaaS adoptions 

• DevOps methodology 

• Machine Identities 

• Extended third parties 

• Organizational amendments 

Adding some essentials for identity-centric security approach, Geoff discussed the key areas – 

• Visibility and Governance 

• Identity Lifecycle Automation 

• Just-In-Time Access and Zero Standing Privileges 

• Identity Threat Intelligence 

• Integrated response 

Conclusion 

Before the final wrap, the webinar concluded by discussing several questions raised by the participants and moderated by Apratim Maity from ARCON’s marketing team. Both Geoff and Harsh shared their valuable insights and recommendations while answering the questions one by one. 

• How ITDR reduces attack vectors 

• How to secure all forms of sensitive business information 

• How ITDR lays the foundation for a Zero Trust approach 

During the first half of the webinar, John Tolbert from KuppingerCole highlighted how the importance of identity-centric security has gained momentum in enterprises worldwide. Below are the key takeaways from the first half of the session. 

• Identity is the new threat vector where ATOs (Account Take Overs) are escalating an almost all cyber-attacks and data breaches leverage compromised credentials. Attackers can buy compromised credentials on the dark web. 

• The Major Types of Attacks Against IAM systems are Credential harvesting, Privilege Escalation, Discovery, Persistence, AD Domain Service Exploits, Lateral movement, and DoS. 

• Credential Harvesting or precisely stealing legitimate user credentials happens due to Password spraying, Brute force, MFA fatigue, LSASS dumping, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-hash, and more. 

John continued his session with an explanation of ITDR and what its role is in modern cybersecurity posture. 

• ITDR, according to him, is just another DR Tool that is used for detecting real-time threats, anomalous behavior, credential attacks, privilege escalation, abuse of identity trust relationships and more. It is also beneficial for event correlation, alerting, attack path visualization, incident investigations, manual and auto responses to disable accounts and conditional access enforcement (MFA) and more. The architecture of ITDR fits as below: 

• There are various reasons why ITDR solutions are sought by enterprises. The major among them are protecting AD, protecting IDaaS, preventing workforce ATO, deterring insider threats, enforcing MFA and looking for MFA bypass attempts. 

• The technical requirements of ITDR are APIs for connectivity, IAM and IDaaS integration, credential intelligence, UBA, access analytics, AI-powered risk analysis, investigation interface, and threat detection responses. 

• Modern challenges of deploying ITDR revolves around complexities of IAM infrastructures, AD, AAD, IDaaS, Internal apps with proprietary authorization systems, SaaS app integrations with other security tools, EPDR/ XDR, SIEM, SOAR etc. 

• The future of Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is poised for significant evolution as organizations face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. There have already been some acquisitions, and more are likely to happen across the globe. But the million-dollar question is – Will it last? 

In the latter half of the webinar, Harshavardhan Lale from ARCON discussed the role of Identity Access Management (IAM), especially ARCON’s IAM solutions, in meeting the ITDR requirements in enterprises. Here are the key takeaways from his session. 

• Harshavardhan started his session with very basic insights of identities and the variety of identities that exist in IT infrastructure. The evolution of digital identities is not yet over. In fact, a lot more is about to come in the next five years. 

• Digital identities drive business models with growth, efficiency, and excellence that is directly involved in profit-making and revenue generation. If we try to construct a digital identity, there are several parameters that are considered. Personal thoughts, likes, dislikes, professional details, online activities/ behaviour, which tools are used, where the information is stored/ saved etc. are taken into account. 

• If we classify the types of digital identities, there are interactive identities and non-interactive identities. Interactive identities include human identities and machine identities (bots). Non-interactive identities include mobile devices, desktops, APIs, web servers, database servers, application servers and more. 

• The typical challenges that organizations face with identities are – lack of detailed password policies, weak and reused passwords, poor role management, too many admin accounts, auditing and compliance, multiple devices per user and more. 

• Continuing what John discussed in the earlier session, Harshavardhan added that there are different identity-based attacks that are dominant in enterprises. Some of them are – Credential Harvesting, Credential Stuffing, Social Engineering, Password-based attacks, Third/ Fourth party breaches, Attacks on AD, Kerberoasting, Pass-the-hash, Shoulder Surfing and more. 

Explaining why Access Management comes into picture, Harsh explained the necessity vividly. The reasons are – 

• In the new, highly distributed “Open Enterprise” user access originates from a variety of locations, devices or applications residing on-premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment. The network perimeter can no longer provide a control mechanism for this access. Identities now constitute the new perimeter and are the single unifying control point across all apps, devices, data and users. 

• Managing the people entering and exiting your enterprise requires substantial IT and HR resources, often leading to delays in getting users the access they need to effectively do their work. 

• Privileges are built into critical infrastructure including operating systems, file systems, applications, databases, hypervisors, cloud management platforms, DevOps tools, robotic automation processes, and more. Cybercriminals covet privileges to gain access to an organization’s most sensitive targets. 

• With access to privileged credentials in their clutches, a cyberattacker essentially becomes an “insider” threat, capable of performing lateral movement into other applications, user segments, other areas of the critical infrastructure, and finally, perform data exfiltration and malicious attacks. 

• Controlling, monitoring, and auditing privileged access—for employees, vendors, systems, applications, IoT, and other areas of critical IT environments, is essential to protect against both, external and internal threat vectors, as also to meet growing compliance needs. 

• IAM solutions can rescue organizations with the help of strong password policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA), Single Sign-On (SSO), Access control, Identity verification, Service account management, Session management and monitoring, Threat intelligence Integration and more. 

• Adding to the above, Harsh explained why IAM solutions are adopted to protect organizations from identity-centric threats. While IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) of user identities, streamlines identity workflow based on user roles, PAM (Privileged Access Management) regulates access to sensitive or specialized data, including JIT, MFA, session monitoring, etc. On the other hand, CIAM pertains to data related to customers, including customer privacy as well as limitations to the assets customers can access.  

Organizations achieve the below with Access Management solutions: 

• Lifecycle-management system for user identities (human & non-human) 

• Role-based Access Control (RBAC), including authentication and authorization mechanisms 

• Track network to monitor who has access to what, when & where 

• Prevent sharing of credentials 

• Standardise & automate key processes for user-account operations and management  

• Adherence to regulatory & compliance requirements for identity & access management 

• Manage & mitigate risks pertaining to privileged (elevated access) user credentials 
  

The need for ITDR in today’s IT security context is highly imperative because of – 

• Identity is a fundamental to business and is the foundational aspect of Cybersecurity 

• Organizations rely on their identity infrastructure to enable collaboration 

• The process of managing and granting access to resources becomes complex 

• Non-human identities and BYOD create further complexities 

• Organizations are required to comply with cross border regulatory compliances 

• Lack of visibility into SaaS account inventory 

• Zombie SaaS accounts 

• Excessive PaaS and IaaS privileges 

• Credential breach is involved in 40%+ security breaches 
  

The key features and use cases of ARCON Access Management in this regard are – 

• Provisioning, Deprovisioning, and Re-provisioning 

• Single Sign-On 

• Password Management & Password Rotation 

• Session Management 

• Privileged Elevation & Delegation Management (PEDM) 

• Access Control with Workflows (eg Segregation of Duties) 

• Robust Multifactor Authentication 

• Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) 

• Highly mature Password Vault to randomize privileged passwords 

• on-scale Secrets Management for DevOps and CI/CD Environments 

• Large connector framework for third-party tool integrations and quick deployments 

• Additional connectors built on-the-fly, if needed 
  

Before concluding his session, Harshavardhan gave some crucial organizational details of ARCON, a brief introduction of all the IAM solutions of ARCON and how the organization is acknowledged by global analysts’ communities consecutively in the last several years. Nevertheless, Harshavardhan also added that ARCON provides its services to multiple industry segments globally and thus it can meet the ITDR requirements in modern IT security context. 

Conclusion 

The webinar concludes with discussing the poll questions shared by John earlier. The participants responded by answering the questions and raising questions to clarify their points. Both John and Harshavardhan shared their valuable insights while analyzing the poll results and answering the questions. 

Identity-based attacks can inflict heavy damage on corporate IT infrastructure and supply chains. From improper IAM system misconfigurations to inadequate controls such as lack of auditing and monitoring of an identity, vulnerabilities within IAM systems can pave the way for intruders to take advantage of weaknesses in the access management process. 

That is why in the era of fast-paced digitalization wherein applications, devices, and end users as well as services are exploding in numbers across the hybrid IT infrastructure, building an identity-centric security posture is of paramount importance for maintaining business resilience. 

But for that to happen, organizations will have to move a step ahead of conventional IAM practice and embrace Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) capabilities. Embedding ITDR capabilities with IAM and PAM systems helps security pros to identify real-time security risks and mitigate threats. 

In this blog we will discuss the top five reasons why organizations will look to embed ITDR with their IAM and PAM systems. 

Reason #1: Shift from compliance-centric to business resilience thinking 

While compliance is the foundation for a robust cybersecurity framework, effective risk management is at the top of the corporate agenda. Ensuring business resilience is now one of the most recurring topics among board members. They are more interested in learning from security pros how effective and proactive the security posture is. Implementation of ITDR capabilities goes a long way in mitigating identity-based threats. It helps to identify identity-centric threats in real-time and take measures to build a proactive security posture—a prerequisite to ensure business and supply chain resilience. 

Reason #2: Cloud adoption and complexities 

Global organizations are swiftly moving towards cloud computing. That means, workloads and data will keep spreading across multiple cloud platforms. This may increase complexities related to management of digital identity and expand the threat vector. One of the biggest challenges found during cloud adoption is that over-privileged entitlements remain unnoticed. Considering the number of applications in use, many access paths and the tremendous number of significant resources hosted on cloud, an incident involving misuse/abuse of an identity can shake the foundation of an IT estate. ITDR helps to identify anomalous behavioral profiles– those identities that can be potentially dangerous and enables security leaders to take an appropriate measure by remediating risks. 

Reason #3: Decentralized IT setups 

Having decentralized IT setups are very typical of mid-size and large enterprises. Decentralized set-ups, particularly in the case of IAM controls, are very demanding and challenging in terms of maintaining the desired level of security. Such setups require having a robust threat detection engine so that any form of threat emanating from identity sprawls across the multiple datacenters resulting in security breaches can be prevented. ITDR offers 360-degree threat insights over all identities that deviate from the sanctioned baseline activities. 

Reason #4: ITDR Supports the Zero-Trust approach 

Global organizations operating in siloed and distributed datacenter environments are scrambling to build highly secure micro perimeter and micro segmentation-based architectures. The objective is to secure network, devices, and dispersed identity (end users) so that these IT components are protected from intrusion. Nevertheless, building micro-perimeters and micro-segmentation is not adequate to address the insider and third-party risks, stemming especially from weak IAM controls. 

While defining a perimeter and segmentation will restrict the identity of ‘crossing the limit,’ it would never be detected if a digital identity were doing something different from sanctioned baselines or something anomalous in nature. The crux of the zero-trust approach lies in “never assume trust but always verify the trust.”  ITDR in this regard comprehends the zero-trust approach as it, when embedded with IAM and PAM systems, allows IT security professionals to verify anomalous profiles (IDs) within the network on a continuous basis. 

Reason #5: ITDR helps to build identity fabric

Building an identity fabric is critical in a highly distributed IT environment. It helps IT security and operations teams to manage users and their entitlements across several layers of IT infrastructure with flexibility. Policy enforcement (MFA, JIT Privileges, Provisioning, Deprovisioning) for identities can be created using an integrated identity fabric framework. ITDR’s cognitive analytics around IDs aid in the development of an identity fabric. It raises ‘red flags against identities with anomalies and threats, making admins’ lives easier when it comes to establishing identity rules, such as whether a particular identity should be deprovisioned based on its anomalous patterns, or whether a particular identity should be granted JIT access to applications based on its behavioral patterns.

ARCON Knight Analytics: A Powerful ITDR Engine

ARCON has developed Knight Analytics, an AI tool that combines machine learning with algorithms capable of analyzing enterprise data to enable administrators to make better informed IAM and PAM decisions. 

Access data is analyzed by the Knight Analytics engine to detect, predict, and display evolving threats, attack patterns, risky patterns and suspicious behavior. It also logs behavior anomalies detected within the IAM and PAM environments and combines these with the overall data to further understand the risk posture of an organization. 

The solution uses a neural network based on a ‘predict, protect and prevent’ philosophy. The neural network creates a separate node for every privileged user so the behavior of one does not impact the analysis of another. 

The system is designed to create risk scores for individual users from AI based analytics on which future privileged access decisions can be made. Risky privileged entitlements ideally require both role and rule-based control over users. As soon as the tool clusters data on risky behavior profiles and users’ anomalies, AI driven analytics kick in to generate a risk score based on the historical data of users. By analyzing data in real time privileged access management decisions are adaptive and less dependent on fixed rules.

Based on the risk-scores, a security team can then decide whether to grant or revoke privileged entitlements. The use of analytics gives administrators stronger evidence and risk-based data on whether to grant access or not. Algorithms use the users’ logged data to identify risky profiles. The algorithms can spot a user or group of user’s deviances from baseline activities, cluster them and give an alert.       

Conclusion

Implementing ITDR capabilities amidst an increasing number of digital identity-based threats is extremely important to reinforce IAM infrastructure.

In the backdrop of fast-paced digital transformations, driven by adoption of cloud-based technologies, global organizations are witnessing massive digital identity sprawls spread across hybrid environments. This has increased the identity attack vector. Whether human or machine identity, IT operations and infrastructure teams have a huge task at hand to make those identities secure from any incident as (identities) have become increasingly vulnerable to misuse from bad actors. 

Furthermore, the constant increase in the number of identities, databases, and applications across distributed IT environments poses serious risks of unauthorized access. A single unauthorized access to any of the IT resources from any so-called “trusted identity” is enough to shake the foundation of the entire IT infrastructure. A malicious intent behind the mask of a “trusted user” leads to catastrophic scenarios.

Fair to say, the challenges today not just include effectively administering identities but also managing those in a widely dispersed/distributed environments. In other words, the IT perimeter is no longer confined to on-premises infrastructure. Remote end users, decentralized IT setups, ad-hoc adoption of SaaS-based applications by various functions based on IT needs- has all necessitated building a security framework that can ensure: 

1. Identities are protected with multiple authentication steps 
2. Identities are managed with Role-Based-Access-Controls (RBAC) and complemented with Attributes-based Access Control (ABAC) and Policy-based Access Control (PBAC)  
3. Identities are governed by well-defined policies and procedures 
4. Identities are monitored to determine anomalous activity 
5. Identities are controlled/restricted to access systems for ensuring the least privilege principle 

What that means is that the administration of identities needs to be tightly controlled by applying the Zero Trust approach– which works on the principle – “Never assume trust and continuously assess it.”  

Heterogenous and distributed IT environment: Building Zero Trust Security model with ARCON Converged Identity platform

But how one would ensure the zero-trust implementation if an organization has a distributed IT infrastructure? Administering various and fragmented identities in siloed IT setups is not an easy task. 

Moreover, the sheer pace at which users and corresponding services are created to administer a wide range of identity-based use cases make it exceedingly difficult from an administrative point of view under siloed IAM approach. It is important to note that conventional IAM solutions offer static controls that were not developed to support modern dynamic IT setups. 

However, modern Access Management requirements are ever evolving and dynamic. ARCON converged identity (CI) approach, in this regard, provides a single pane of glass to get the complete observability of a digital identity environment, i.e., all human and non-human identities together. Whether privileged identities, machine identities, or standard user identities, a CI approach enables entwining all distinct identities under one centralized engine for administering connected or unique use cases at an enterprise level across distributed, hybrid, and heterogeneous IT environments.

ARCON CI approach provides five key enablers to construct the Zero Trust security model 

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): ARCON’s Converged Identity enforces MFA, a foundation to build the zero-trust security architecture. MFA adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to prove themselves that they are the ones who have been granted access to systems. The ARCON CI platform integrates with disparate biometric tools such as 3M, Cogent, Morpho, Precision, Gemalto, among others. In addition, CI administrators can use token-based authentication (Radius, RSA tokens) including authentication applications such as Microsoft, Google, and ARCON authenticators for robust authentication mechanisms. 
2. Adaptive Authentication: ARCON’s Converged Identity enables adaptive authentication, where user activity is monitored throughout a session. This AI-based technology analyzes the user’s geographic location and login behavior which includes IP address, device used, typing speed, time to log in, etc. through an authentic and reliable environment. Any kind of deviation from this baseline standard is notified to the administrator, who helps take immediate action on it by terminating the session. This helps to detect and prevent attacks that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
3. Identity Governance (IG): Identity Governance plays a pivotal role in building the foundation of Converged Identity approach. It aims to streamline the IT processes, improve security, and enhance user experiences across the organization. IG helps to establish role-wise and time-wise access to the critical systems/ applications and creates workflow matrix for administrative ease. Identity Governance offered by ARCON’s Converged Identity suite helps IT administrators to provision, de-provision, certify or re-certify identities seamlessly and builds the foundation of Zero Trust security and strong governance. It refers to the practices, processes, and technologies that ensure the right individuals have the right access to the right resources, while minimizing the chances of compromised identity at the same time. 
4. Just-In-Time (JIT) Approach: Just-In-Time approach helps organizations to follow the principle of ‘Least Privilege’ and mitigates threats arising from ‘always-on’ privileges. It gives ample scope to the administrators to grant privilege rights to accomplish tasks in a secure manner without worrying about revoking the rights. ARCON | CI provides JIT approaches through creation of ephemeral credentials, on-demand privileged accounts, time-based privileged elevation, temporary elevation, and thereby helps to follow Zero Trust security policy. 
5. End-user Behaviour Analytics: Continuous analysis of end-user behaviour builds the threat-predictive landscape. Analysis of end-user behaviour and predicting risks stemming from digital identity is equally critical as administering it. End-user behaviour analytics enables the IT risk management team to identify those anomalous identities that deviate from the baseline policies as mandated already. ARCON’s Converged Identity provides a powerful identity threat analytics engine, known as Knight Analytics, that leverages AI/ML algorithms to identify any sort of deviation that poses risks and sends instant alerts to flag the anomalies in real-time.
6. Role-based Access Control supported by ABAC and PBAC. It is highly crucial for an organization with multiple roles in multiple departments to have role-based access control mechanisms with fine-grained control. However, this is not enough to scale in dynamic and highly distributed IT environments. Therefore, ARCON CI offers Attributes-based access control (ABAC) to complement RBAC and Policy-based access control (PBAC) to enforce robust access control policies. 

Conclusion

ARCON Converged Identity suite holistically enhances Zero Trust security by ensuring that access decisions are based only on comprehensive and up-to-date information about users and devices. This approach aligns with the principle of “never trust, always verify” framework, making the organization’s security posture more robust in today’s dynamic and evolving threat landscape.

“Automation” is the new-age mantra in information technology management. From large enterprises to mid-size organizations, IT infrastructure and operations teams are increasingly implementing process automations. The two major reasons behind the growing acceptance of process automation are higher IT efficiencies leading to better operational outcomes and a reduced number of man-hours spent on mundane IT tasks.

However, amid this increasing pace of automation, we are witnessing a massive explosion in the number of non-human identities that interact with systems to conduct IT tasks. Forrester expects that RPA products and services will reach $16 billion by 2023.

Now the question pops up: How safe are non-human identities? Can non-human identities be misused? Do organizations adopt enough IT security mechanisms to secure non-human identities? Because, just like human identities, non-human identities are vulnerable to bad actors as well.

And the threat vector that is created by the proliferation of non-human identities is very large, and any malicious kind of activity through a non-human identity might lead to an IT catastrophe.

For example, when the digital identities of non-human entities are misused and their credentials (user names, passwords, and certificates) are compromised due to weak access controls, attackers can misuse the data, cause IT downtime and/or disrupt services. Likewise, non-human entities with privileged-level access are at risk of insider and cyber-attacks due to the sensitive nature of information stored in digital accounts.

A Holistic Identity and Access Management Approach: Towards Identity Convergence

Organizations typically administer, control, and track human identities that access disparate applications, databases, servers, and OSes by deploying identity and access management solutions, including identity administration and governance and privileged access management solutions.

In a similar vein, controlling and administering non-human identities is equally important to building a holistic identity and access management framework. And we believe that, as the number of both human and non-human identities grows, future organizations will adopt a converged identity management platform to manage a large number of all forms of (human and non-human) identities seamlessly.

How ARCON Digital | PAM can address a growing number of non-human identity use cases and their security 

It is highly imperative for organizations to manage the lifecycle of non-human identities in their IT environments. It is critical to ensure that they have the necessary systems and processes in place to control and manage the non-human identities seamlessly.

For example, developers using agile methodologies such as DevOps or leveraging microservices for a faster build process, workloads being managed on cloud containers, VMs including RPA—there are an increasing number of use cases that interact with machines, scripts, applications, and IT infrastructure processes. So, from an IT security perspective, it is crucial to manage the credentials (passwords, SSH keys, certificates, and OAuth tokens).

ARCON | Digital PAM provide the capability to generate, vault, and randomize credentials for non-human identities and broker trust between two non-human identities, along with ensuring authorization and policy enforcement (Identity Governance) for the same.

To summarize, ARCON | Digital PAM:

1. Leverages native application attributes and role-based access controls to authenticate applications and containers

2. Manages credentials/tokens used by applications, container platforms, automation tools, and other non-human identities

3. Controls human and non-human access to CI/CD consoles

4. Manages and securely pass credentials to validated containers and clusters as and when required

5. Secures credentials, certificates, APIs, tokens, secrets in digital vaults and protects and monitors both non-human and human identities with super-user level access to cloud workloads

Conclusion

In a nutshell, strong Identity and Access Management practices are the best and only choice to secure non-human identities or machine identities with the same objective that are used for human identities. These identities are increasingly falling prey to abuse by malicious insiders and third-party users. And organizations that are adopting automation techniques are highly prone to these threats. Hence, in another couple of years, protecting machine identities could be the only choice for organizations to secure their critical business assets.