Lumeus as a Remote PAM Solution
Remote PAM,RPAM,Secure K8S Access,Secure RDP,Secure SSH
ByRobertsonDecember 18, 2024
According to the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 VPN Risk Report, over half of surveyed organizations—56%—experienced one or more VPN-related cyberattacks in the last year, an alarming jump from 45% the year before. These rising attacks underscore how legacy remote access methods, particularly VPNs, often fail to keep pace with modern threats and distributed workforces. As a result, more and more organizations are turning to Zero-Trust models that actively verify each user, device, and transaction before granting access.In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the emerging concept of Remote Privileged Access Management (RPAM) and why it has become a pillar for Zero-Trust adoption. By defining RPAM use cases we’ll highlight how Lumeus builds on RPAM principles to deliver ephemeral, policy-driven access without relying on VPN tunnels or static credentials.What is Remote PAM?According to Gartner the RPAM use case “ is focused on supporting remote IT external staff and providing a secure VPN-less approach for performing remote privileged tasks. Such tasks include session-brokering and time-bound, session-specific, JIT access. RPAM is also critical for improving identity lifecycle management (LCM) for remote privileged users, especially for short-term access, which requires a specific set of policies and procedures to guide the creation and assignment of privileges and access expiration.” (1)The Need for RPAMAs IT ecosystems and DevOps processes become more dynamic, privileged access requirements shift rapidly. Short-term consultants, third-party vendors, or even AI-based workflows might need to troubleshoot a production environment or push a hotfix on short notice. Traditional approaches—like distributing permanent SSH keys, rolling out company-wide VPN accounts, or embedding long-lived credentials in code—lead to overexposure and credential sprawl. Once handed out, these static keys or VPN credentials are difficult to track and even harder to revoke, creating dangerous blind spots for security teams.RPAM Pillars:Granular Control: Restrict access to specific machines, databases, web applications, or AI services rather than granting blanket privileges across entire networks.Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Dynamically provide privileges only for the exact duration needed, automatically revoking them afterward.VPN-Less Connectivity: Eliminate broad network tunnels that expand the attack surface, aligning with Zero-Trust security principles.Lumeus’ RPAM CapabilitiesThe Lumeus platform is designed to satisfy Remote PAM with capabilities like:Enterprise Identity and Access:  Lumeus integrates with IAM solutions out of the box, regardless of the flavor (Microsoft, Okta, Google and others), this provides a seamless experience using enterprise single sign-on and multi-factor authentication.Policy Rules:  Lumeus’ rules engine is robust enough to support multiple identity sources, diverse use cases and controls such as JIT, data protection or AI monitoring.Secure SSH Sessions: Developers or contractors can request short-lived certificates for granular command-line access. No lingering SSH keys remain, drastically reducing the threat of leaked or orphaned credentials.Database Access: External DBAs, data analysts, or AI routines can get time-bound privileges to specific schemas or tables, granting them autonomy without opening the entire database. Detailed query-level logs ensure accountability and compliance.Kubernetes Access: As container orchestration drives modern apps, ephemeral certificates can limit user scope to specific namespaces or pods, preventing lateral movement and enforcing fine-grained governance over microservices.Private Web Application Access: External stakeholders, such as support teams or contractors, often need secure access to internal web portals or application dashboards. With RPAM, they can be granted session-based access to private web apps—without spinning up a full-scale VPN. Once their session ends, the gateway automatically severs and revokes privileges, ensuring no lingering access paths remain.Emerging AI App Use Cases: From AI-driven analytics to predictive maintenance tools, machine learning workflows require privileged access to data repositories. The challenge is to implement proper governance, visibility, data protection and privacy while enabling productivity in this modern use case.What is the Lumeus Difference?Design Principles – Zero Trust and AILumeus was designed from the ground up to be a Zero Trust Access solution powered by AI.  Out of the box, with IAM integration and a robust policy engine, it can tackle the granular control and JIT needs of RPAM.The other key advantage is flexible connectivity.  Lumeus offers Client-Based Access for advanced or technical users who need a deep level of functionality—think developers troubleshooting a server or DevOps engineers managing Kubernetes clusters—Lumeus provides a lightweight client that securely handles authentication and access controls.For less technical users or for scenarios where installing additional software isn’t ideal—say, a temporary contractor working on their personal device—Lumeus offers a fully clientless, browser-based access option. Through a secure web portal, users can be granted just-in-time credentials to access protected apps, SSH sessions, or critical SaaS platforms. With single sign-on (SSO) and strong authentication built in, this approach removes the need for VPNs or custom configurations. It’s especially valuable when rapid onboarding or emergency support are at play, allowing teams to adapt quickly without manual setup.Deep Visibility and Auditing at Every LevelLumeus provides unmatched transparency into remote privileged activity:Command-Level Visibility: SSH sessions are fully recorded at the command level, supporting forensic investigations, compliance audits, and detailed troubleshooting.Query-Level Insight: Every database query is captured, enabling security teams to see exactly what data was accessed and when. This granularity is essential for ensuring proper data governance.Automatic Data Classification: Sensitive data, be it personal identifiers, health or payment information, is automatically detected and classified. Administrators can then enforce policies around masking or restricting access to ensure compliance and reduce exposure.By consolidating this visibility and enforcing policy rules, Lumeus allows security teams to maintain full oversight without hindering the developer experience. This balance of security and productivity is vital as organizations strive to release features quickly, adopt DevOps best practices, and remain competitive in a cloud-driven marketplace.A Single Platform for RPAM needsIn an environment where traditional perimeters have dissolved and development teams span time zones and organizations, Lumeus provides a unified solution. No more juggling static SSH keys, juggling disparate VPN configurations, or leaving databases open to broad privileges. Instead, you gain a dynamic, policy-driven, and fully auditable platform that delivers the best of RPAM: secure, ephemeral, and context-aware access to every critical layer of your stack.Lumeus ensures you can innovate fearlessly while keeping your organization’s most critical assets safe and compliant.(1) 2024 Critical Capabilities for Privileged Access Management.  Authors: Paul Mezzera, Abhyuday Data, Michael Kelley, Nayara Sangiorgio, Felix GaehtgensDemohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6zflHgJ6oI

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Secure DB Access,Secure Dev Access,Secure K8S Access,Secure SSH,Zero Trust Security
Overcoming Common Access Challenges in Modern Developer Environments
ByRobertsonDecember 16, 2024
As development teams grow and infrastructure becomes more distributed, the way developers access critical systems has changed dramatically. Gone are the days when a handful of developers accessed a single on-prem server with a simple SSH key. Today’s engineers often juggle multiple Kubernetes clusters, a range of databases (SQL, NoSQL, and everything in between), and a sprawl of cloud-based services—each with its own requirements for credentials, permissions, and policies.This complexity has introduced new friction points for developers. On one hand, there’s a strong push for agility: teams need quick, secure access to their tools and environments. On the other, stricter compliance mandates and an evolving threat landscape require more granular controls, better visibility, and airtight audit trails. Balancing these forces can feel like threading a needle in a high-stakes environment.In this post, we’ll break down three major challenges developers face when accessing the critical infrastructure that powers modern applications—complexity of access management, credential sprawl, and lack of consolidated audit—and explore strategies to tackle them head-on.1. The Complexity of Access ManagementDevelopers work with a broad set of resources: SSH into various servers, manage containers in Kubernetes, query multiple databases, and integrate third-party APIs. Each of these services may have its own unique authentication scheme and access policies. The result is an intricate web of credentials, user directories, VPNs, bastion hosts, and role-based permissions. When a developer needs access to a new environment or when someone leaves the company, updating and coordinating all these permissions can become a manual, error-prone, and time-consuming process.Lumeus offers Enterprise Identity and Access Management integrations out of the box, with a robust policy engine that enables least privileged access with Just-in-Time (JIT) access.  In addition, Lumeus enhances connectivity, this allows for the elimination of publicly facing resources.2. Credential SprawlIt’s not uncommon for developers to store credentials in multiple places—environment variables, configuration files, password managers, or even shared documents—and these credentials can multiply quickly. Managing a labyrinth of secrets is both a security and productivity challenge. If a single SSH key or database password leaks, it could open the door to unauthorized access. If developers waste time hunting down credentials in multiple systems, productivity suffers.When speaking to customers, we often hear the following issues:Inconsistent Storage Locations: Credentials hidden in code repositories, shared folders, or personal vaults.Rotation and Revocation Issues: Stale credentials remain active, or rotating keys is a tedious process.Lack of Visibility: Without a clear map of who holds what keys, audit and compliance become a nightmare.Lumeus eliminates credential sprawl and dependency on vaults by natively supporting certificate-based authentication.  SSH Keys and Database credentials are substituted by short lived certificates; this methodology increases security posture, especially if combined with JIT access.3. Lack of Consolidated AuditWhen access information is scattered across multiple tools—SSH logs, database audit trails, Kubernetes admission controllers—gaining a single, unified view of who did what, when, and where can be challenging. Without consolidated audit data, it’s difficult to hold teams accountable, investigate potential incidents efficiently, or prove compliance during security audits.Lumeus automatically logs every session (command transcription and human-readable description of the session), provides SSH session capture (and replay), transcribes queries and automatically detects and classifies sensitive information like personal, payment or health data.DemosWatch this playlist that showcases 3-minute demos for Secure SSH, Database and Kubernetes Access.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZreXuauOs&list=PL-USZu9MMmdmZZa_OwpnAMixYE0bXFLPN

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