Access Management in Healthcare: IAM vs. PAM vs. MFA
What Is Privileged Access Management (PAM)?
PAM can be thought of as a subset of IAM that is focused on powerful or sensitive access and normally used in scenarios whereby an individual (or machine) needs access to systems or services requiring stronger permissions than a standard user.
PAM is used to ensure that this highly sought-after access is hardened with extensive security controls.
“Privileged access can be associated with human users as well as nonhuman users, such as applications and machine identities,” Traffanstedt says.
Likewise, the definitions of privileged access and standard access continue to expand as more users and machines are given additional high-level access.
What Are SSO and Role-Based Access Control?
Single sign-on is an authentication process that allows a user to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
“SSO simplifies the user experience by reducing the number of logins required and enhances security by reducing the number of passwords users need to remember,” says Ted Kietzman, product marketing manager for Cisco’s Duo Security.
Role-based access control restricts system access to authorized users based on their role within an organization, Kietzman explains.
“Basically, your role designates what you can and can’t access,” he says.
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How to Use IAM, MFA and PAM Together
The good news for healthcare IT leaders, Traffanstedt says, is that these security controls are complementary practices.
“The best way to think about how they are implemented is from the perspective of what is valuable to your organization,” he adds.
That can be different for every healthcare business, but it typically includes protecting patient data and ensuring medical service availability.
It might also cover the intricate regulatory framework of the healthcare sector.
“An effective identity security strategy starts with this and works outward to ensure that the right person has the right access at the right time,” Traffanstedt says.
Implementing IAM, MFA and PAM in Modern Architectures
Efstathopoulos explains that modern systems have commoditized a lot of the IAM functions and capabilities, primarily as cloud services.
“The commoditization of IAM cloud services, toolkits and products enables organizations to design and implement a tailor-made system,” he says.
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