More than half of companies fail to protect privileged credentials

Details of privileged accounts represent a major prize for hackers because they unlock the access required to exploit virtually any part of an organization's network and data. Yet according to a new report many companies are failing to adequately protect them.

The study by privileged account management (PAM) specialist Thycotic and research firm Cybersecurity Ventures benchmarked the PAM performance of more than 550 organizations and found that 52 percent received a failing grade.

While 80 percent of respondents consider PAM security a high priority and 60 percent say that PAM security is required to demonstrate compliance with government regulations, the results indicate that they're not following through by implementing best practices.

One in five organizations say they've never changed their default passwords on privileged accounts and three out of 10 still allow accounts and passwords to be shared. In addition 40 percent use the same security for privileged accounts as standard accounts and 70 percent don't require approval for creating new privileged accounts. Half of all organizations surveyed also say they don't audit privileged account activity.

"While awareness is high among organization on the importance of securing privileged accounts, according to results found in our survey, many organizations still fall short when it comes to adopting and maintaining best practices in the protection of privileged account credentials," says James Legg, president and CEO at Thycotic. "There are some serious gaps in the enforcement of basic security measures when it comes to securing privileged account credentials".

The study also reveals that 66 percent of organizations still rely on manual methods to manage privileged accounts even though automated solutions are available.

More information along with advice on how enterprises can protect their accounts is available in the full report which you can request from the Thycotic website.

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