Contractor Control: How TrustPAM Replaces Trust with Verification

Contractor Control: TrustPAM Replaces Trust with Verification

Ensuring the security of an organization's critical systems and data is a task that requires a comprehensive approach. When it comes to working with contractors, traditional control methods often prove insufficient. Using shared passwords, unlimited access, and a lack of detailed monitoring create serious security risks. TrustPAM offers a fundamentally different approach, replacing blind trust in contractors with comprehensive verification and control of every action.

The Problem of Shared Passwords: An Open Door for Attackers

Using shared passwords is a common practice that seems convenient but is actually a serious vulnerability. Imagine a situation: several contractors have access to the same account with a shared password. In the event of compromised credentials, it is difficult, and often impossible, to determine who exactly committed the unauthorized action. Moreover, the shared password can be compromised accidentally, for example, through a phishing attack or a data leak on the contractor's side. The distribution of passwords within the contractor's company also increases the risk of leakage. As a result, an attacker gains access to your organization's critical systems, which can lead to serious financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory violations.

Why Shared Passwords Are Dangerous:

• Inability to audit: It is impossible to accurately determine who exactly performed a specific action under a shared account. This makes it difficult to investigate incidents and identify those responsible.
• Increased risk of compromise: The more people who know the password, the higher the likelihood of it being leaked.
• Lack of personal responsibility: Using shared passwords blurs responsibility, as no one is personally responsible for actions taken under a shared account.
• Management complexity: When a contractor's employee is fired, the shared password must be changed, which requires coordination with all users of this account and can lead to downtime.
• Violation of regulatory requirements: Many regulations, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA, require individual user identification and auditing of their actions. Using shared passwords violates these requirements.

TrustPAM Solves the Shared Password Problem:

TrustPAM provides strict access control to privileged accounts for each contractor. Instead of shared passwords, each contractor receives a unique account with individual access rights that correspond to their job responsibilities. This allows you to:

• Accurately identify each user: Every action taken in the system is linked to a specific user, ensuring full auditability and transparency.
• Personalize access rights: Contractors only get access to the resources and systems they need to perform their tasks.
• Automate password management: TrustPAM automatically generates, stores, and rotates passwords for privileged accounts, eliminating the need for manual management and reducing the risk of compromise.
• Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): TrustPAM can integrate with MFA solutions, adding an extra layer of protection when accessing privileged accounts.

As a result of the transition from shared passwords to individual accounts, the organization receives: Improved access control, reduced risk of compromise, compliance with regulatory requirements, and the ability to conduct effective audits.

Just-in-Time Access: Providing Access "Just in Time"

Providing permanent access to critical systems for contractors creates unnecessary security risks. A contractor may leave the project, but their account remains active, providing a potential opportunity for unauthorized access. In addition, the contractor does not always need full access to all systems throughout the entire period of cooperation. To solve this problem, TrustPAM offers a Just-in-Time (JIT) access mechanism.

What is Just-in-Time (JIT) access:

JIT access is an approach to privileged access management where access to resources is granted only when it is really needed and is automatically revoked after the work is completed. Instead of granting permanent access, the contractor requests access to a specific system or resource for a specific period of time. The request is approved (automatically or manually), and the contractor receives temporary access, which automatically expires after the specified period.

Benefits of using JIT access:

• Minimizing the attack surface: By limiting access only to the time when it is really needed, JIT access reduces the time during which an attacker can exploit a compromised account.
• Improved access control: Each access request requires approval, allowing you to control who gets access to critical systems and when.
• Reduced risk of insider threats: By limiting access only to the necessary period, JIT access makes it difficult for contractors to commit unauthorized actions.
• Compliance with the principle of least privilege: JIT access complies with the principle of least privilege, providing users only with the access rights they need to perform their tasks.
• Automation of access management: TrustPAM automates the process of requesting, approving, and revoking access, reducing administrative burden and minimizing errors.

How TrustPAM implements JIT access:

TrustPAM provides a flexible and customizable JIT access mechanism that allows you to:

• Define JIT access policies: You can define rules that determine which systems, for what period of time, and under what conditions access can be requested.
• Automate request approval: You can configure automatic approval of access requests based on certain criteria, such as user role, time of day, or type of resource requested.
• Integrate with approval systems: Access requests can be sent to responsible persons for approval, providing an additional level of control.
• Track JIT access usage: TrustPAM maintains a detailed log of all access requests, allowing you to track who got access to which systems and when.
• Automatically revoke access: After the specified period, access is automatically revoked, requiring no manual intervention.

As a result of implementing JIT access, the organization significantly reduces security risks associated with contractor access to critical systems. Strict access control is ensured, the attack surface is minimized, and the risk of insider threats is reduced.

Video Recording of Contractor Actions: Continuous Control and Accountability

It is not enough to simply provide access and hope for the best. To ensure complete security and accountability, it is necessary to be able to track and analyze the actions of contractors in real time or post-factum. TrustPAM offers the ability to record and replay contractor work sessions, providing continuous control and the ability to investigate incidents.

Why do you need video recording of contractor actions:

• Ensuring accountability: Video recording of contractor actions allows you to accurately determine who did what and when in the system.
• Identifying unauthorized actions: Analyzing the video recording allows you to identify deviations from established procedures and unauthorized actions.
• Incident investigation: In the event of an incident, the video recording can be used to investigate and determine the causes.
• Training and professional development: Video recordings can be used to train new employees and improve the skills of existing ones.
• Compliance with regulatory requirements: In some industries, video recording of user actions is a mandatory requirement of regulatory acts.

How TrustPAM implements video recording:

TrustPAM provides a comprehensive solution for video recording of contractor actions, which includes:

• Session recording: TrustPAM records all actions taken by the contractor during a work session with privileged accounts, including keystrokes, mouse movements, and screen content.
• Secure storage of recordings: Video recordings are stored in encrypted form and protected from unauthorized access.
• Search and playback: TrustPAM provides a user-friendly interface for searching and playing video recordings. You can search by various criteria, such as user name, session time, or keywords.
• Video analysis: TrustPAM can automatically analyze video recordings for suspicious activity and generate alerts.
• Integration with SIEM systems: Video recordings and alerts can be integrated with SIEM systems for centralized security monitoring and analysis.

Key Features of TrustPAM Video Recording:

• Supported Protocols and Environments:

  TrustPAM supports session recording for a wide range of protocols, including RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, HTTP(S), and others. Session recording is also supported in various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

• Flexible recording parameter settings:

  You can configure recording parameters, such as frame rate, resolution, and video quality, depending on the organization's needs.

• Automatic application detection:

  TrustPAM automatically detects the applications used and displays them in the video recording, which simplifies the analysis of user actions.

• Real-time mode:

  TrustPAM allows you to view the video recording in real time, allowing you to quickly respond to suspicious activity.

• Watermarks:

  You can apply watermarks to the video recording containing information about the user, time, and source of the recording, which provides additional protection against falsification.

Thanks to video recording of contractor actions, the organization gains the ability to control all actions taken within privileged sessions, which allows you to identify and prevent unauthorized actions, investigate incidents, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. TrustPAM transforms the contractor control process, replacing trust with verification, which significantly increases the overall security level of the organization.