Privileged Access Management (PAM) broadly refers to the policies, procedures and tools used to manage IT resources. Standard IT users employ IT resources to perform business activities. Privileged users are responsible for managing and administering those resources.

Privileged users routinely configure IT systems, add or delete business users, validate integrations with other systems, specify logging procedures, schedule backups, etc. By definition, they possess a range of capabilities that pose a far greater security risk than the capabilities routinely granted to standard users. Consequently, their activities are controlled and monitored using a specialized set of PAM tools.