Full Report
Learn how to secure your cloud identities and operationalize Zero Standing Privileges with the Wiz and CyberArk integration
Analysis Summary
# Best Practices: Cloud Identity and Entitlements Management (CIEM & PAM)
## Overview
These practices focus on securing cloud identities and entitlements by implementing Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management (CIEM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) strategies. The goal is to enforce the principle of least privilege, manage access across complex, multi-cloud environments, and minimize the risk stemming from excessive or unused permissions for both human and non-human identities.
## Key Recommendations
### Immediate Actions
1. **Deploy CIEM Capabilities for Centralized Visibility:** Immediately implement a CIEM solution feature (or equivalent tooling) to map *effective permissions* across all cloud environments (IAM roles, ACLs, policies).
2. **Identify and Flag High-Risk Access:** Use initial visibility scans to prioritize and flag identities (human and machine) that have access to highly sensitive data or production environments.
3. **Revoke Clearly Unused Access:** Identify and immediately revoke access for dormant accounts or permissions that have demonstrably not been used recently.
### Short-term Improvements (1-3 months)
1. **Enforce Least Privilege via Guided Remediation:** Utilize CIEM tools to systematically scope down excessive permissions to the absolute minimum required for the role.
2. **Implement Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) for Critical Paths:** Begin the remediation process to remove standing privileges from identities directly tied to critical workloads, shifting toward just-in-time (JIT) access models.
3. **Secure Third-Party Identities:** Audit and restrict permissions granted to vendors and external users to the bare minimum required for their defined tasks.
### Long-term Strategy (3+ months)
1. **Establish Continuous Governance and Monitoring:** Configure automated systems to continuously monitor for new risk emergence, enforce privilege controls in real-time, and automate risk-based alerts and remediation workflows.
2. **Integrate Risk Correlation:** Adopt security graph functionalities to correlate identity risks with other cloud risks (e.g., vulnerabilities, misconfigurations) to prioritize remediation based on the full attack path impact.
3. **Operationalize On-Demand Access for Incidents:** Standardize and automate the process for granting time-bound, emergency access (approvable via integrated tools like ChatOps) within the ZSP framework.
## Implementation Guidance
### For Small Organizations
- Focus initial efforts on consolidating visibility using native cloud tooling supplemented by a lightweight CIEM feature if budget allows, prioritizing MFA enforcement and removal of known excessive administrative rights.
- Utilize automated approval workflows for standard development tasks to maintain agility while enforcing necessary baseline controls.
### For Medium Organizations
- Fully deploy a dedicated CIEM solution to handle multi-cloud visibility and permission mapping across diverse services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
- Begin pilot programs for ZSP implementation focusing first on your most critical, low-churn production environments.
### For Large Enterprises
- Integrate CIEM and PAM solutions deeply to create a unified control plane for managing access lifecycle and session security.
- Operationalize automated, risk-based remediation, leveraging security graph analysis to manage the large attack surface dynamically.
- Ensure all privileged sessions (especially those escalated via JIT) are continuously authenticated and recorded for auditability.
## Configuration Examples
| Control Area | Configuration Best Practice |
| :--- | :--- |
| **Least Privilege** | Scope down broad permissions (e.g., `s3:*`) to specific resource actions (`s3:GetObject` on designated buckets only). |
| **Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP)** | Implement JIT access where privileges are granted via API call/approval and automatically revoked after a short, defined duration (e.g., 1 hour) or upon task completion. |
| **Session Security** | Configure continuous authentication checks that revalidate user identity during sensitive or administrative cloud console actions. |
| **Identity Correlation** | Configure risk engines to flag any identity possessing both administrative rights *and* access to systems containing pre-identified sensitive data tags. |
## Compliance Alignment
- **NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF):** Addresses **Identify** (Asset Management) and **Protect** (Identity Management and Access Control).
- **ISO/IEC 27001:** Supports A.9 (Access Control) and A.15 (Supplier Relationships, covering third-party access).
- **CIS Benchmarks:** Directly supports foundational security controls related to identity governance and privileged access management within cloud service providers.
## Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- **Treating Visibility as Remediation:** Collecting permission data is step one; teams must actively use that data to scope down entitlements and remove risks.
- **Ignoring Non-Human Identities:** Failing to audit and enforce Least Privilege on service accounts, automated workloads, and APIs, which often hold persistent, excessive rights.
- **Disrupting Productivity:** Implementing security controls without ensuring seamless user experiences (e.g., forcing complex, non-native authentication methods) will lead to shadow IT or user workarounds.
- **One-Time Audits:** Viewing privilege management as a project rather than an ongoing process; controls degrade quickly in dynamic cloud environments without continuous enforcement.
## Resources
- **Framework Reference:** Consult official documentation for NIST CSF, ISO 27001, and the respective Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) guidance related to Cloud Identity.
- **Tooling Ecosystem:** Explore the capabilities of Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management (CIEM) platforms and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions for integrated control.
- **Implementation Guidance:** Seek out documentation on implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) access provisioning within major cloud provider IAM documentation.