Topic starter
19/08/2026 3:24 pm
TL;DR: Privileged access management still fails when organisations treat it as a tool purchase instead of an operating model: Gartner's report, via SSH Communications Security, says leaders should start with the fundamentals, focus on high-risk use cases, and mature controls over time. Persistent standing access, weak session visibility, and poor integration with IGA, SIEM, and ITSM remain the practical blockers.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by SSH Communications Security: “PAM Success Takes More Than a Vault: Five Strategies to Build a Stronger Practice”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when privileged access is not continuously governed?
A: When privileged access is not continuously governed, standing privilege persists, dormant accounts remain usable, and the attack surface expands across human and machine identities.
Q: When should organisations prioritise just-in-time admin access over permanent privilege?
A: Organisations should prioritise just-in-time admin access when elevated rights are not needed continuously and when compromise of standing privilege would create unacceptable blast radius.
Q: How do teams know whether PAM is actually improving control?
A: Look for measurable reduction in standing access, more privileged sessions recorded and reviewed, fewer unmanaged personal privileged accounts, and clearer alignment between privilege and approved work.
Practitioner guidance
- Build a current privileged account inventory Start with a live inventory of privileged accounts, service accounts, and shared administrative access before redesigning workflows or approvals.
- Convert standing access to just-in-time workflows Prioritise the highest-risk administration paths first, then replace persistent entitlement with time-bounded access tied to specific tasks and change windows.
- Record and index privileged sessions Capture session activity, index it for search and review, and connect the evidence to audit, incident response, and threat detection workflows.
Bottom line: PAM maturity depends on making privileged access observable, time-bounded, and tied to real business workflows rather than leaving it as persistent entitlement.
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19/08/2026 4:09 pm
Privilege visibility is the control plane for PAM maturity: PAM programmes do not mature by adding more vaulting screens or approval steps. They mature when organisations can account for who held privilege, for how long, and for what purpose. That is the difference between access administration and governed privilege. For practitioners, the decisive question is whether privileged activity can be explained after the fact and constrained before the next use.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 49% of IT professionals would prioritise improving privileged access management if the decision were theirs alone, according to Netwrix's 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What should IAM and security teams do when PAM sits outside ITSM and SIEM workflows?
A: They should treat the disconnect as a governance gap, not a minor integration issue. When PAM is isolated, approvals, evidence, and incident context fragment across systems. That leads to manual workarounds, weaker accountability, and slower response when privileged activity needs review.
👉 Read our full editorial: PAM maturity still hinges on privilege visibility and JIT access