KuppingerCole Blog

Privileged Access Management (PAM) software comes in many forms. Some are heavy with software components (the thick client model) while others are leaner (the thin client model). Since we at SSH.COM are firm believers in the thin client model, I wanted to present five solid reasons why this is the case. 1. No constant cycle of installing, patching and configuring agents Thick clients require that you have to install agents on the client - and usually on the server as well. Moreover, you need to ensure that those agents are always up-to-date, patched and compatible with the...

In their race towards digital transformation, organizations are using cloud services to accelerate the development of new apps and improve efficiency. They allow new applications to be rapidly developed, existing applications to be modernized and deployed without additional capital spend. This provides important business benefits but also increases the challenges for the cloud customer to ensure cyber-security and regulatory compliance. It is in this light that the recent announcements from GCP (Google Cloud Platform) need to be understood. Trust but Verify Initially, cloud...

MITRE recently published the detailed results of their second round of tests. This test pitted APT29 malware and methods against 21 cybersecurity vendors . The MITRE testing is an excellent benchmark for comprehensively exercising Endpoint Protection (EPP) and Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) tools in real-world scenarios where organizations find themselves under attack by Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). MITRE describes the environments, methodology, and operation flow of their testing regime in great detail here . The raw results are available for review, and they have...

Decentralized Identity is a concept that may not be mainstream yet, but it is a term that embodies the sentiment that many individuals feel regarding the control they wish they had over their personal data. The public has become increasingly more vocal about the misuse of their data, and global regulation has responded to this outcry with the GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy Directive, and more. While this grants some control over some aspects of user data, there is an assumption that underpins these privacy regulations: that personal data can be held and used by an entity other than the owner....

On July 22 nd , 2020 IBM announced their IBM Cloud for Financial Services – what is this, why have IBM taken this step, and what does this announcement mean? Financial Services Compliance Challenges One recurring challenge for all organizations is complying with the ever-increasing number of laws and regulations. When IT services are delivered on-premises organizations often believe that this ensures the oversight, control and visibility needed to ensure and prove compliance. This is not the case with cloud-delivered services where there is a shared responsibility model and...

Back in February (oh, how time flies! Just to think that it was right before the  beginning of the  COVID-19 pandemic…) I wrote a blog post looking at Oracle’s ambitious plans for developing  its  cloud strategy and expanding  its  worldwide infrastructure footprint. The post was titled “ Will 2020 Be the Year of Oracle Cloud? ” and just five months later the company has already demonstrated that it  does not just  finally  have   a  promising  vision for Oracle Cloud, but also a...

It looks like the whole world is currently talking (at least, tweeting) about the latest large-scale Twitter hack. High profile accounts of the likes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, as well as companies like Apple or Uber, were suddenly promoting a cryptocurrency scam. At first, they referred to a specific crypto-related website, but as it was quickly taken down, the hackers switched to spreading multiple Bitcoin addresses, asking people to send money to them to get a double amount of their investment back. Even though this type of scam is nothing new and...

There are ongoing discussions from high-level expert groups from the EU Commission about what regulation of Artificial Intelligence – particularly the algorithms that process data – will look like. There is a high priority to not only create alignment with the GDPR but to add flexibility for future advancements so that a baseline level of data protection is always provided, even as new AI applications are implemented. There are many elements of the GDPR that are particularly worth looking closer at regarding algorithmic models for recommendations, predictions, and...

Informatica just announced that they agreed to acquire Compact Solutions, a vendor of Enterprise Metadata Management with engineering and professional services being based out of Krakow, Poland. Compact Solutions core product is MetaDex, which enables full end-to-end visibility of data flows, especially around some complex data sources, and thus helps organizations in understanding, tracking, managing, and protecting data flows and increasing efficiency in their broader data and analytics landscape as well as making more efficient use of their data. Metadata Management: Knowing your...

Before there were PAM solutions everyone was given access to privileged accounts with little regard or control as to who had access to them, when they had access and what they did with that access. As security breaches started to rise and compliance regulations were written it was obvious that manual processes and home-grown approaches to manage privileged access weren't enough to secure your organization. First PAM solutions solved issues but were too inflexible That's when privileged management solutions popped up in the market. There were solutions for password management and...