Hitachi ID Privileged Access Manager

Digital transformation has become essential for organizations seeking competitiveness and customer value, but it expands cyber-security, compliance, and identity risks across cloud, IoT, AI, and big-data environments. Because modern digital operations require agile, frequent access and identity requests, Privileged Access Management (PAM) is positioned as a core control for reducing risk when deployed intelligently and in a structured, fit-for-purpose way. PAM addresses threats such as shared credential abuse, unauthorized elevation, credential hijacking, third-party privilege misuse, accidental misuse, and the need to attest privileged users and admin accounts. Operational and regulatory needs further drive PAM adoption, including discovery and lifecycle ownership of shared/service accounts, single sign-on sessions for administrator efficiency, activity auditing/recording for compliance, and controlled access for outsourcing vendors/MSPs and cloud services. Post–Covid-19 constraints add pressure to balance budget, time-to-value, usability, and secure remote access to SaaS and databases.

Hitachi ID’s Privileged Access Manager (HiPAM), part of the Hitachi ID Identity Suite, emphasizes encrypted vaulting with randomized passwords and frequent rotation (as often as hourly), multi-location replication, and encrypted mutual authentication between servers and endpoints. It provides session recording via video and keystroke logging with automated redaction of PII, including post-processing that detects and deletes PII matches—highlighted as important for GDPR. Tamper resistance is enforced by terminating sessions and blocking access if recordings are manipulated. HiPAM logs detailed privileged-account usage, supports DevOps-oriented APIs to replace embedded passwords and accelerate onboarding/offboarding, and offers workflows for timed and ticketed privileged access, plus application-to-application privileged management. Access is delivered via browser-based HTML5 sessions (SSH/RDP in a second tab) without requiring client installs, and includes built-in 2FA and mobile access via Android/iOS apps. Strong high availability and disaster resilience are emphasized through active-active architecture and geographically distributed nodes. The product is described as a leader in multiple 2020 categories, with noted improvement areas including broader DevOps tool integration, expanded CPEDM, and stronger marketing.

• Digital transformation increases cyber security, compliance, and identity risks across extended infrastructures.
• Privileged users are categorized as privileged business users (sensitive data access) and privileged IT users (infrastructure access).
• Key PAM challenges include abuse of shared credentials, unauthorized elevation, credential hijacking, third-party privilege abuse, accidental misuse, and privileged-user attestations.
• Organizations face tighter budget controls after the Covid-19 crisis alongside increased demand for secure remote access to SaaS applications and databases.
• HiPAM stores randomized passwords in an encrypted vault that can be replicated across different locations.
• HiPAM can schedule password changes as often as every hour.
• HiPAM session recording supports screen-recording video and keystroke logging, with automatic redaction of PII and stored passwords.
• PII detection in HiPAM includes server-side post-processing that searches for PII matches and deletes matches from keystroke and keyword databases.
• Session recordings in HiPAM cannot be tampered with by end users without immediate session termination and access blocking.
• Hitachi ID HiPAM was placed as a Leader in three categories in the KuppingerCole PAM Leadership Compass for 2020.

• “Digital transformation is no longer optional for businesses and organizations if they wish to stay competitive and deliver greater value to customers.”
• “As agile access and identity requests are a prime characteristic of a successful digital environment it follows that one of the most important tools to manage this securely is Privileged Access Management (PAM).”
• “Among the key challenges that drive the need for privilege management are:”
• “In recent years, PAM solutions have become more sophisticated making them robust security management tools.”
• “A key feature of HiPAM is its ability to randomise passwords which are stored in an encrypted vault which can be replicated across different locations for extra security.”
• “Password changes can be initiated on a Privileged Access Manager server and scheduled to happen as often as every hour.”
• “Matches are then deleted from the keystroke and keyword database.”
• “HiPAM runs without any need for users to install agents or client software to initiate a privileged session.”
• “A highlight of the interface is the ‘recent’ button which like Microsoft Office applications allows users and admins to go rapidly to previous requests and sessions.”
• “Finally, Hitachi ID needs to do more to promote the products' strengths through more effective marketing and messaging.”