Privileged access management and Zero Trust: are your controls keeping up?

TL;DR: PAM is shifting from an IT control to a core identity security layer because privileged credentials remain the fastest path to compromise across cloud, SaaS, DevSecOps, and operational environments, according to Arcon. The real test is whether privilege is continuously verified, time-bound, and auditable across human and non-human identities, because standing access still outlives the assumptions Zero Trust depends on.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Arcon: Privileged Access Management and its role in the evolution of digital trust

By the numbers:

• Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them.
• 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
• 90% of IT leaders say properly managing NHIs is essential for a successful zero-trust implementation.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams reduce standing privilege in privileged access management?

A: Security teams should convert standing privilege into time-bound access that is granted only for a specific task and revoked immediately afterward.

Q: Why does privileged access create such a large Zero Trust gap?

A: Because Zero Trust often focuses on authentication, while the real risk appears after authentication when a privileged identity can still make broad changes.

Q: What do teams get wrong about privileged access management?

A: They often treat PAM as a product purchase rather than a governance and operating-model change.

Practitioner guidance

• Inventory every privileged identity path Map human admins, service accounts, API tokens, and automation credentials into one inventory so privileged access can be governed as a single attack surface.
• Replace standing privilege with JIT elevation Use time-bound elevation for administrative tasks wherever operationally possible, and require automatic expiry at task completion.
• Bind privileged sessions to audit and review Record privileged actions at the session level, not just at authentication, so security teams can reconstruct what happened after the fact.

What's in the full article

Arcon's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• The vendor's view of AI-assisted privileged threat detection and behavioural analytics in practical deployment settings.
• Examples of how PAM is positioned across hybrid, multi-cloud, DevSecOps, and OT environments.
• Feature-level descriptions of unified visibility, granular RBAC, and workflow integration for privileged access operations.
• The source article's own framing of future-ready PAM capabilities and implementation priorities.

👉 Read Arcon's analysis of PAM, Zero Trust, and privileged access risk →

Privileged access management and Zero Trust: are your controls keeping up?

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