What is the Difference Between IAM Engineer and PAM Engineer?

Understanding the difference between an IAM and a privileged access management (PAM) engineer is critical if you plan on hiring these professionals. One role concerns identities and access management (IAM) while the other focuses on privileged access management tools. 

But don’t worry if you don’t know what those terms mean yet: we explain them below. Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about IAM and PAM engineers, and how they help organizations boost their security and thrive in challenging online environments. 

What is the Difference Between an IAM Engineer and a PAM Engineer?

An IAM engineer is a professional focusing on access management for all users in an organization, not just those with privileges. Their work involves defining who can access what and granting permissions based on job function. (For example, some staff can access word processing resources while others are confined to CRM tools). 

IAM engineers also enable and disable users' access as they leave and join the company. Denying access to colleagues who go elsewhere and adding new ones to the system is part of the job.

The role of PAM engineers is slightly different. Their job is to secure and control privileged accounts – accounts of individuals with degrees of control over the network. 

PAM engineers’ roles can be diverse. Most focus on implementing PAM solutions for their clients (or company), ensuring admin teams have the required software to pursue robust policies. However, they can also apply themselves in more detailed practical work to secure networks. 

For example, engineers sometimes play a role in securing and storing authentication credentials. Experts build safe password vaults and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) technologies. (After all, 80% of data breaches stem from attackers guessing weak passwords).PAM engineers also enforce privilege rights and grant access to specific systems when necessary. To do this safely, they monitor and record the activities of privileged users, or use AI tools to analyze their behavior and issue alerts whenever anything suspicious happens. 

In short, the difference between PAM and IAM engineers is slight but real. IAM engineers deal with companywide user permissions and access controls, while PAM engineers deal with the subset of privileged users who have more access than the average employees. 

What is the Difference Between IAM, PAM, and DAM?

By now, we hope you understand the difference between IAM vs PAM vs PIM (privileged identity management). However, you might be unaware of how they compare to DAM (data access management). 

Here’s a rundown of how each of these security practices differ from each other: 

• Objective:
  • IAM ensures that only specific people can access your network. It applies various permissions depending on the requirements of the individual and whether they are a part of the organization. 
  • PAM focuses on managing security for special privileged accounts – users with more administrative rights than regular users. It improves the robustness of networks further and protects them against internal attacks. 
  • DAM concentrates on protecting company data from internal theft or attack. But like IAM it covers all users, preventing data loss at every touchpoint. 
• Users: 
  • IAM targets all users, ensuring only authorized personnel have network and data access permissions. 
  • PAM covers people with network authority, usually systems administrators. 
  • DAM also covers everyone but with a focus on those who can access and manipulate data repositories
• Software features: 
  • IAM software focuses on allowing or denying access to users wanting to log onto the system. It offers tools that prevent colleagues from logging on if the organization no longer employs them. 
  • PAM software has various on-the-ground monitoring tools and just-in-time access features. It helps organizations operate a least privilege model where system administrators only have the permissions they need to perform their job, nothing more. 
  • DAM focuses more on encryption of data (to prevent unauthorized access) and activity tracking.

DAM, IAM and PAM tools are helpful for organizations that run computer networks and deal with sensitive data and applications. Therefore, using any of the top 10 identity and access management tools is essential for enabling businesses to thrive in a threat-filled environment. Those operating data and privileged access management best practices are less likely to experience costly breaches. 

What Does PAM Mean in IAM?

As discussed, PAM deals with privileged users. It is a subset of IAM – a management practice dealing with all users. 

The discussion around DAM vs IAM vs PAM vs IGA (identity governance and administration) can be helpful when discussing specific aspects of identity access management. However, all these activities fall under the same umbrella, with many PAM vendors addressing all four. Ultimately, they‘re not too confusing. Essentially, they refer to different aspects of user access security on company networks.

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