New Research Reveals Criticality of Vendor Privileged Access Management for Secure Remote Access

Analysis shows Leostream ‘addresses all the complexity and cybersecurity challenges’ of working with third-party vendors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Independent analysts at Small World Big Data have released a new report on the challenges organizations face in providing fully secure access to internal digital resources by third parties, such as IT vendors. The report provides a review of the Leostream Privileged Remote Access service from Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream® Remote Desktop Access Platform.

Businesses of all sizes increasingly rely on third-party vendors for critical services such as application management or even freelance/contract assignments. Granting these third parties remote access introduces critical risks when vendors mishandle credentials, leak credentials, or exploit their privilege once inside the network. In “Fully Securing Third-Party IT Vendor Access,” IT research firm Small World Big Data notes traditional VPN-based access is no longer secure or acceptable for privileged access.

Accordingly, solutions broadly categorized as Vendor Privileged Access Management (VPAM) solutions have become cybersecurity essentials. Small World Big Data identifies the following required features of VPAM products:

• Provide a single, managed, and fully secured management plane
• Authorize only narrow and explicit access to the resources required for the credential level
• Enable control and configuration by the organization, not the vendor
• Require no installation of VPAM hardware or software on third-party devices
• Provide a standard access process for all third parties that can scale with requests and allows internal IT security staff to manage, approve and monitor all third-party activity
• Monitor, log, and review third-party sessions so they are auditable and reviewable by internal staff
• Optimally, for best efficiency and cost, though not strictly required, supports automated workflows such as managing access requests, configurating resources, approvals, and actual access

The report says the Leostream Privileged Remote Access service “follows today's zero-trust best practices, addressing all the complexity and cybersecurity challenges involved in granting third-parties remote privileged access to an organization’s key assets, data, and resources.”

“We find that Leostream’s Privileged Remote Access service prevents credential loss, ensures vendors have easy and direct access to the resources they need for their jobs but no more than necessary, and greatly enhances an organization’s ability to meet compliance requirements for monitoring/auditing third-party IT access and activity,” said Mike Matchett, Principal Analyst at Small World Big Data. “And rather than introduce additional security friction when working with external IT vendors, we believe Leostream's VPAM will instead accelerate and help optimize external IT augmentation initiatives.”

“Small World Big Data has provided the most comprehensive analysis on VPAM considerations that I’ve seen yet, and I encourage any IT executive tasked with managing third-party remote access to use this research as a guide,” said Karen Gondoly, Leostream CEO. “We appreciate Mike and his team for calling out the Leostream Privileged Remote Access service as a solution that ticks all the boxes for securing third-party remote access.”

The full report is available at https://leostream.com/resources/download-fully-securing-third-party-it-vendor-access/

The Leostream VPAM service can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or deployed alongside Leostream's Remote Desktop Access Platform. To learn more about Leostream's Privileged Remote Access service please visit Leostream.com/vpam or contact [e-mail].

About Small World Big Data

Small World Big Data consults with technical teams, marketing groups, and business executives from emerging startups to the largest enterprise IT vendors. Its team brings more than 70 years of high-tech marketing, product management, and industry analyst experience to its current analyst services, which focus on emerging markets across data center, cloud, and big data segments. Its footprint includes the popular Tech Top 6 podcast, and several Truth in… video events for TruthInIT.com on data protection/storage, end-user computing, and more.

About Leostream

Leostream solutions embody over 20 years of Leostream research and development in supporting customers with hosted desktop environments, including VDI, hybrid cloud, and high-performance display protocols. The Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform provides the world’s most robust desktop connection management and remote access feature set, allowing today’s enterprises to choose the best-of-breed components to satisfy their complex security, cost, and flexibility needs while working with them as they evolve into tomorrow. The Leostream Privileged Remote Access service simplifies, secures, and monitors temporary access to corporate resources for vendors, service providers, and external contractors.

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Leostream is a registered trademark of Leostream Corporation in the United States. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.