The US Presidential election is just a few months away. Cybersecurity would be on top of the mind of the authorities. Do you remember how the Presidential election became a target of organized cyber criminals in 2016?

In one of our old articles, we discussed how the Presidential Election of 2016 suffered due to the hacking of emails consisting of confidential information. Government officials and departments are extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks.

In a recent shocking incident, thousands of user accounts of a government organization in North America were compromised as confirmed by the authorities. Suspected to be a miscreant by an organized cybercriminal group, this attack affected almost 30 federal departments where more than five thousand accounts were compromised. Forensic investigators led by the federal police found that the Passwords and Usernames were acquired through and the cyber attackers tried to access government service details.

Why are Government departments a treasure trove of information?

Traditionally the federal departments employ a large number of employees that administer strategic areas. These departments oversee areas related to national interest and nation-building. Hence, government departments possess a large lake of data which could be in any of the following information:

• Classified government information
• Citizen’s data
• Strategic blueprint
• Employee details
• Social security details

Why can government departments’ Information Security be compromised?

• Absence of IT policy framework to govern end users and super-users like privileged users
• Lack of robust password management system
• Absence of Multi-factor authentication
• Lack of behavior monitoring system
• Lack of auditing and reporting of end-user activities

Poor Password Management: a predominant security vulnerability

Till today poor password management has been the biggest source of a data breach across the globe. Several research and surveys show that more than 75% of times hacking of systems and misuse of confidential information arises from poor password management. The above incident is the latest addition to the list.

Government organizations across the world are adopting new technologies to meet the chores of digital transformation. The pandemic situation has accelerated the requirement towards remote IT operations. In this backdrop, organizations build a network of interconnected devices and manage a large stream of data that is accessed by hundreds or thousands of IT en users. These accounts require a robust authentication process to ensure secure access to the enterprise network. The damage could be catastrophic if privileged passwords are abused or stolen.

Password Vault | ARCON | PAM

Ensure Robust Password Management with ARCON Privileged Access Management

With the changing IT landscape, the number of privileged accounts is rising uncontrollably across all kinds of organizations such as Government, BFSI, Telecom, Healthcare, Manufacturing. The vulnerability of passwords is more prone to misuse if the accounts are shared by multiple users in a distributed IT environment. Weak user authentication mechanisms lead to unmonitored and uncontrolled privileged access in the digital ecosystem. This has led to the necessity of managing passwords and controlling user activities. ARCON | Privileged Access Management (PAM) provides a framework that helps IT security leaders to strengthen the authentication mechanism and mitigate malicious activities from the enterprise network. ARCON Password helps large organizations in the following ways:

• It provides a highly matured password vault that generates strong and dynamic passwords
• It can change passwords for several devices or systems at one go automatically
• It stores the passwords in a highly secure electronic vault
• The storage of passwords is highly secured by several layers of protection (256-bit encryption)
• It enables enterprises to handle complex and dynamic password changes and meet the standard regulatory requirements

The Bottom Line

ARCON | Privileged Access Management is a robust security tool that helps government departments to secure sensitive data and classified information.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Endpoint Privilege Management mitigates risks arising out of endpoints. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.