Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect with traditional security measures. Static rule-based approaches and manual monitoring are no longer sufficient to protect privileged accounts. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into play, offering several advantages in the context of PAM. Let’s delve deeper into this subject, with a specific focus on the features of our flagship product, Fudo Enterprise.
Understanding PAM: A Foundation for Security
Before diving into the role of AI in Privileged Access Management (PAM), it’s crucial to grasp the fundamentals. PAM is a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that revolves around managing, monitoring, and controlling access to privileged accounts, which have elevated privileges within an organization’s IT environment. In simpler terms, PAM ensures that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive information within a company’s network. Now, you might wonder, what makes certain accounts “privileged”? These are the accounts with elevated permissions, allowing users to perform critical administrative tasks. The core objective of PAM is to minimize the risk associated with these privileged accounts, as they are prime targets for cyberattackers. If compromised, they can provide unfettered access to an organization’s most critical systems and data.
Artificial Intelligence in PAM
Imagine AI as a digital sentry, constantly monitoring and analyzing the activities of users with privileged access. In the context of PAM, AI algorithms can detect anomalies in user behavior. These anomalies could be as simple as someone logging in at an unusual time or attempting to access restricted resources. For example, if a routine employee suddenly starts trying to access highly confidential files or execute administrative tasks, AI can raise a red flag. It’s like having a virtual security guard who can spot suspicious activities and alert the human administrators in real-time.
Artificial Intelligence is like the adaptive brain behind the PAM system. It learns from historical data to make informed decisions about access control. Learning capabilities enable it to adapt to new threats and patterns continuously. It can identify emerging security risks and proactively strengthen access controls. For instance, if it detects that a particular action often precedes a security breach, it can autonomously tighten security protocols to prevent future occurrences.
In summary, Artificial Intelligence identifies immediate threats and raises alerts, while also taking a broader view and refining access controls over time. Imagine a scenario where a cyberattacker gains access to a privileged account. AI would detect this intrusion in real-time, flagging it as a potential breach, and simultaneously analyze this incident, incorporating it into its knowledge to better protect against similar threats in the future.
Fudo Enterprise AI-Powered Prevention
Now let’s describe the role of Artificial Intelligence in our flagship product. Fudo Enterprise AI-Powered Prevention is one of the most advanced features on the market. Through individual behavior analysis, AI creates personalized behavior patterns for each user. Any suspicious activity triggers immediate notifications to the administrator, enabling them to track and mitigate potential threats while ensuring accountability for the actions of relevant individuals.
In Fudo Enterprise, you have the flexibility to configure the AI module according to your specific requirements. You can specify the criteria and timing for training. The AI models are designed to conduct behavioral analysis based on selected protocols, such as SSH and/or RDP, and provide individual statistics for each model. With predefined Session Policies in place, the AI module is capable of detecting specific user behaviors during a session, react automatically, and send messages and SNMP TRAP notifications about the current situation.
Fudo Enterprise provides three behavioral analysis models for the training and prediction process:
- Mouse Biometric Model (RDP) – AI prediction model based on mouse movements and clicks.
- Keyboard Biometric Model (RDP) – AI prediction model based on keyboard typing dynamics.
- Semantic Behavioral Model (SSH) – This model is based on keyboard input (used commands). It works by identifying individual preferences of people to achieve the same results in different ways. For example, it can detect if one person prefers to use wget over curl and vim over emacs, another person might use a reset command to clear the terminal while someone else might have a preference for using the CTRL+L combination.
Every AI model is trained and individually calibrated for each user to obtain the best possible predictive value whilst minimizing the False Positive Rate. It can automatically detect and respond to specific behaviors during a session based on the configured policies. It can also send real-time messages and SNMP TRAP notifications to keep you informed about the current situation.
For each AI model, Fudo Enterprise displays training statistics, including:
- Time spent for the last building – duration of the last building.
- Number of session segments used – the count of session segments utilized during the last training.
- Entities covered – the number of users involved in the last training session.
- True Positive Rate (TPR) – the percentage of malicious sessions properly flagged by the model as suspicious.
- False Positive Rate (FPR) – the percentage of legitimate sessions inappropriately identified as malicious.
- Area Under ROC curve (AUROC) – a single metric representing model quality.
As you can see, the Fudo Enterprise AI feature can greatly support the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in their day-to-day responsibilities by offering essential guidance and streamlining the verification and monitoring processes.
Summarizing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning significantly enhance Privileged Access Management by providing advanced threat detection, predictive analysis, and automated responses. As cyber threats continue to evolve, AI-driven PAM solutions are becoming indispensable for organizations seeking to protect their most critical assets. Leveraging the AI phenomenon, Fudo Enterprise delivers the best proactive protection on the market for your organization’s key business data. So embrace the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to rest assured that your company’s assets will be in capable hands.
To learn more about all our products, please check out the Fudo Security website or schedule a demo with us by filling out the form.
