According to a report by the consulting firm Forrester, around 80% of all cyber-attacks that make it into the media these days are based in some way on the theft of privileged credentials. The reason: Privileged access is the easiest and fastest way for cyber criminals to get into an IT system and steal sensitive data.

Privileged users usually have extensive administrator and root rights, which is indispensable for system updates and maintenance tasks, for example. However, these privileges also mean that the holder is typically able to override existing security protocols. This is then precisely the vulnerability that malicious users exploit to make unauthorized system changes, access locked data and/or obfuscate their actions. Traditional security solutions offer no protect ...