Privileged access management (PAM) is a way of authorizing, managing, and monitoring account access with a high degree of administrative permissions. This is done to protect an organization’s most critical systems and resources. These “super user” accounts are isolated within an encrypted repository or vault. The access of these systems is authenticated and logged, and the sessions may be recorded or audited. With PAM, companies can exert greater control over the privileged access that could be used to make or break their operations. Why is Privileged Access Management necessary? Many organizations invest in Privileged Access Management to help them meet compliance standards, such as PCI-DSS, SOC2, FedRAMP, ISO27001. PAM can present additional barriers for bad actors who are attempting to exfiltrate data and inflict damage, whether these threats are coming from outside or within your organization. By limiting and isolating privileged access, an organization reduces its attack surface. When it.