Critical Access Under Fire: Using Zero Trust to Secure Your Privileged Users

In a cybersecurity environment marked by constant change and escalating threats, organizations must proactively address vulnerabilities originating from both external threat actors and internal weaknesses. A particularly critical risk lies in the mismanagement of privileged accounts, which malicious insiders or cyber attackers can exploit to inflict substantial damage. The zero trust security framework, built on the principle of "never trust, always verify," has become a crucial defense against the dangers of unchecked privileged access.

Understanding the Threat: Privileged Accounts and Their Risks 

Privileged accounts are user accounts with elevated permissions that grant extensive access to sensitive systems, databases, networks, and resources within an organization. When these accounts are not adequately controlled, monitored, or audited, they pose significant cybersecurity risks, including insider threats, lateral movement, and privilege escalation.

One example is the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain attack. Cybercriminals compromised privileged credentials within the SolarWinds infrastructure to inject malicious code into software updates, affecting approximately 18,000 customers, including major corporations and government agencies. According to the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), attackers leveraged excessive privileged access, demonstrating how catastrophic a breach can become when privileged accounts are poorly managed.

How Zero Trust Specifically Mitigates Privileged Access Threats

The zero trust model fundamentally changes how organizations handle privileged access. Instead of assuming internal accounts are secure, a zero trust architecture demands explicit verification for every access request, regardless of its origin. This approach significantly reduces the attack surface, limits lateral movement, and contains damage if credentials are compromised.

Continuous Verification and Real-Time Monitoring

Zero trust architecture continuously verifies every action taken by privileged accounts through real-time monitoring, behavioral analytics, and strict access control policies. For example, in the 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, malicious actors breached critical systems using just one compromised privileged password. This incident highlighted the urgent need for rigorous authentication, endpoint detection, and continuous monitoring—core elements of zero trust. Continuous verification ensures privileged user activities are always scrutinized, significantly limiting an attacker's ability to escalate privileges or move laterally within the network.

Least Privilege Access

The "least privilege" principle, central to zero trust, ensures that users and systems receive only the minimum necessary access to perform their duties. This approach minimizes risks such as privilege misuse, data exfiltration, and unauthorized access. Privilege creep, where in which accounts accumulate excessive permissions over time, is directly prevented through regular reviews and removal of unnecessary privileges, often managed by automated privileged access management (PAM) tools.

The Capital One data breach in 2019, which exposed over 100 million customer records, resulted from overly permissive privileges in Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure. This breach underscores the importance of enforcing the least privilege principle and routinely auditing access rights.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

Zero trust employs robust authentication measures, particularly MFA, to validate the identities of privileged users. MFA dramatically reduces the risk that stolen credentials will result in a severe breach. According to Microsoft, implementing MFA can prevent up to 99.9 percent of account compromise attacks. Colonial Pipeline notably lacked MFA, allowing attackers easy access to critical systems. Had MFA been in place, the breach would likely not have occurred.

Real-world Success of Zero Trust

Organizations that have adopted zero trust are already seeing real results. Google originally developed and deployed its BeyondCorp framework as an internal zero trust model to protect its workforce. They saw a sharp decline in account breaches and significantly lowered the risk posed by compromised privileged accounts. This success led them to launch BeyondCorp as a commercial service, giving other organizations access to a proven zero trust framework that reduces cyber risk and strengthens security posture.

While zero trust provides substantial benefits, implementation can be complex, involving a cultural shift, detailed planning, and continuous management. Common challenges include the integration of legacy systems, resistance from users, and complexity in governance. These challenges, however, can be addressed through incremental deployment, robust security training, and clear communication of cybersecurity benefits to stakeholders.

Uncontrolled privileged access represents one of the most significant cybersecurity risks facing organizations today. The zero trust model provides a robust, comprehensive solution to effectively mitigate it. Through continuous verification, least privilege enforcement, and MFA, your organization can strengthen its cybersecurity posture, ensuring resilience to increasingly sophisticated threats.

Adopting implementing a zero trust architecture is no longer just strategic; it's essential. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you secure your organization's future.

1. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/SolarWinds-hack-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know

2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-04/hackers-breached-colonial-pipeline-using-compromised-password

3. https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/capital-one-data-breach-2019-f85a259eaa60

4. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2019/08/20/one-simple-action-you-can-take-to-prevent-99-9-percent-of-account-attacks/