Matt Dircks, Bomgar CEO, said, “IT administrators and third-party vendors need privileged access to be able to do their jobs effectively, but the number of privileged users is growing exponentially, and access to systems and data is often being granted in an uncontrolled way. In the face of growing threats together with the introduction of the EU GDPR, there has never been a greater need to implement organization-wide strategies and solutions to manage and control privileged access.”

Some two-thirds of organizations claimed that they could have experienced a breach due to third-party access in the last 12 months, and 62% due to insider credentials.

A large part of the risk sits with the organizations themselves, as the report found that 73% rely on third-party vendors too heavily, and 72% have cultures too trusting of partners.

The report also found that problematic employee behavior continues to be a challenge for most organizations.

Among the problems cited: Writing down passwords, for 65% of organizations (55% in 2017); and colleagues telling each other passwords for 54% of organizations in 2018 (46% in 2017). The report revealed, indicates that poor password hygiene continues to be a growing issue, or it may be that organizations are more aware of these behaviors due to an increased focus on data protection and privacy.

The report showed some organizations are managing these risks with a privileged identity and access management solution. From the research, these same organizations experienced less severe security breaches and have better visibility and control than those who use manual solutions or no solution at all. Forty-four percent of organizations using PAM experienced a serious breach or expect to in the next six months, compared to 69% of those without privileged user control.

The report suggested as the vendor ecosystem grows, and employees gain more trust, organizations need to accept a way to mitigate risks is by managing privileged accounts through technology and automated processes that not only save time, but also provide visibility across the network. Dircks added, “By implementing cybersecurity policies and solutions that also speed business performance, versus putting roadblocks in users' way, organizations can begin to seriously tackle the privileged access problem.”

More than 1,000 key decision makers with visibility over the processes associated with enabling internal users and external parties to connect to their systems completed the survey in February 2018. Those surveyed across the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and France, were all IT professionals across operations, IT support/helpdesk, IT security, compliance and risk or network/general IT roles from a range of industries, including manufacturing, finance, professional services, retail, healthcare, telecoms and the public sector.