CyberArk launches privileged session management for cloud

Privileged access security solutions company CyberArk has announced the release of the CyberArk privileged session manager for cloud.

This new offering aims to extend privileged access session isolation, monitoring and control to the most common web applications, cloud and social media platforms.

As part of an integrated solution, privileged session manager for cloud also leverages risk scoring capabilities to detect and alert on suspicious privilege-related activity.

Cloud administrators and privileged business users often have elevated rights to sensitive cloud platforms and web applications, yet this access is not always managed by the IT team.

This allows users to operate outside of corporate security, potentially exposing the entire organisation to unknown risks.

An external attacker or malicious insider who is able to hijack these types of user credentials could shut down cloud environments, execute a total compromise of web applications or DevOps tool consoles, steal sensitive customer data or post inflammatory comments on social media.

Red Hat cloud platforms technical marketing director Chris Morgan says, "As organisations take advantage of the flexibility of hybrid cloud computing, the agility and speed offered by DevOps methodologies, and containerised platforms, cross-environment security monitoring is important.

"CyberArk privileged session manager for cloud enables administrators with web-based cloud and DevOps tool consoles to manage and administer these dynamic and powerful environments while providing security teams with more control and monitoring capabilities to help reduce risk.

Key features of the CyberArk privileged access security solution include:

• Support for major cloud platforms and web applications: The new offering will initially support cloud (IaaS and PaaS) platforms, SaaS applications and social media including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Red Hat OpenShift, Salesforce.com and social media applications - Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.  
• Transparent access and faster connections: A completely transparent user login establishes secure connections to cloud platforms and web applications three times faster than traditional session management solutions.  
• Isolated privileged sessions in the cloud: Privileged business user and cloud administrator sessions are isolated, helping to ensure that privileged credentials are never revealed and are only used to establish secure sessions.  
• Privileged session monitoring: Organisations can conduct detailed audits of all privileged user activities within cloud platforms and web applications, speeding digital forensics and security investigations as well as providing support for compliance and multiple industry regulations.   
• Privileged session risk scoring: Comprehensive risk scoring on privileged sessions provides visibility into risky operations performed by individual privileged users, enabling organisations to detect and alert on high-risk activity, as well as streamline and prioritise audit review cycle times based on risk. This capability is enabled through a combination of statistical, deterministic algorithms, machine learning and behavioural analytics. 

"With the rapid adoption of cloud-based resources, it's no longer enough to control privileged access to just on-premises resources," says 451 Research principal security analyst Garrett Bekker.

"However, most organisations are dealing with many separate security tools, most of which have their own administration consoles.

"With the integration of Vaultive, CyberArk can provide customers with the ability to manage privileged access to both cloud and on-prem resources with a single unified view.

Bekker says, "This improves the overall experience by letting users feel as though they are operating in an app's native environment, in the process helping to limit 'console fatigue.'"