CloudKnox Security adds privileged access features to platform

CloudKnox Security, a vendor in identity privilege management, introduced new features to its Cloud Security Platform, including Privilege-on-Demand, Auto-Remediation for Machine Identities and Anomaly Detection.

The offerings intend to increase enterprise protection from identity and resource risks in hybrid cloud environments. According to CloudKnox Security, the new release is an improvement on its existing Just Enough Privileges Controller, which enables enterprises to reduce overprovisioned identity privileges to appropriate levels across VMware, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.

Privileged accounts are often targets for attack, and a successful hacking attempt can result in full control of an organization's data and assets. The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report highlighted privileged account misuse as the top threat for security incidents and the third-leading cause of security breaches.

The Privilege-on-Demand feature from CloudKnox Security enables companies to grant privileges to users for a certain amount of time and on a specific resource on an as-needed basis. The options include Privilege-on-Request, Privilege Self-Grant or Just-in-Time Privilege that give users access to a specific resource within a set time to perform an action.

The Auto-Remediation feature can frequently and automatically dismiss unused privileges of machine identities, according to the vendor. For example, the feature can be useful dealing with service accounts that perform repetitive tasks with limited privileges, because when these accounts are overprovisioned, organizations will be particularly vulnerable to privilege misuse.

The Anomaly Detection feature creates risk profiles for users and resources based on data obtained by CloudKnox's Risk Management Module. According to the vendor, the software intends to detect abnormal behaviors from users, such as a profile carrying out a high-risk action for the first time on a resource they have never accessed.

The company will demonstrate the new features at Black Hat USA in Las Vegas this year for the first time. CloudKnox's update to its Cloud Security Platform follows competitor CyberArk's recent updates to its own privileged access management offering, including zero-trust access, full visibility and control of privileged activities for customers, biometric authentication and just-in-time provisioning. Other market competitors that promise insider risk reduction, identity governance and privileged access management include BeyondTrust and One Identity.