A privileged account is any account with elevated access rights beyond standard users — including administrator accounts, service accounts, root accounts, emergency accounts, and application accounts.
⚙️ How Does It Work?
Privileged accounts are secured through PAM: vaulting credentials, enforcing MFA, recording sessions, rotating passwords, and applying JIT access to eliminate standing privileges.
📍 Where Is It Used?
Every IT environment — on-premises servers, cloud consoles, databases, network equipment, applications.
💡 Real-World Example
Types of privileged accounts at a bank: Domain Admin, root on Unix servers, sa on SQL databases, AWS root account, service accounts running automated jobs, and break-glass emergency accounts.
🔗 Related Terms
Stay Ahead in Identity Security
Get weekly IAM, PAM & IGA insights via Identity Pulse.
Subscribe to Identity Pulse →