ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation, today announced significant upgrades to its PAM360 privileged access management platform. The enhancements include AI-powered features for intelligent least privilege access and risk remediation policy recommendations, alongside a new privileged task automation module powered by Zoho’s Qntrl workflow orchestration platform. These additions aim to help businesses automate administrative tasks, enforce least privilege at scale with smart, context-aware controls, and minimize security risks through automated remediation.
The company also highlighted the limitations of traditional PAM models relying on static policies and manual processes, often lacking crucial context and leading to excessive permissions and security vulnerabilities. Their 2024 Identity Security Insights report indicated that 68% of respondents are seeking AI-driven improvements in risk-based access control.
“Today’s hybrid, multi-cloud environments have led to an explosion of human and non-human identities, creating complex access workflows and rampant privilege sprawl. To tackle this, organizations require dynamic policies that can intelligently enforce the principle of least privilege across their identity stack. With the AI-driven CIEM module in PAM360, IT security teams can now generate intelligent least privilege policies, proactively flag risky entitlements and automate remediation, helping enterprises close critical identity security gaps before they’re exploited,” said Ramanathan Kannabiran, director of product management at ManageEngine.
Addressing this need, PAM360’s Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) module now incorporates AI-generated least privilege policies, automated remediation of shadow admin risks, and real-time access and session summaries. These AI-powered capabilities enable organizations to proactively combat access sprawl and misconfigurations in hybrid environments with minimal manual intervention.
ManageEngine also addressed the inefficiencies and potential security gaps associated with business workflows using RPA and script-based automation that often rely on manual access provisioning. Modern IT teams require dynamic controls to streamline on-demand access within these automated workflows and bolster overall security.
According to Kannabiran, “Privileged task automation in PAM360 eliminates the need for administrators to manually grant and revoke necessary access privileges for every automated routine. Access is provisioned just in time, based on the task context, and revoked automatically once the task ends. This not only preserves admin bandwidth, but also reduces the risk of privilege misuse caused by excessive or standing access.”
Leveraging Zoho’s Qntrl, PAM360 now offers native automation capabilities, eliminating the need for third-party tools. This deep integration within the Zoho ecosystem allows for seamless orchestration of privileged access workflows, enhancing efficiency without compromising security. PAM360 streamlines vendor access with automated onboarding and offboarding, provisions temporary, just-in-time access with granular, time-bound controls, and ensures secure, hands-free transfer of privileged data – delivering speed, consistency, and reduced risk across the organization.
