The Endpoint-to-Cloud Privilege Security Checklist: 21 Controls to Eliminate Standing Access
Brief
PAM secured the endpoint; privilege moved on. Work through these 21 controls to find out where standing access is accumulating in your cloud, SaaS, and AI estate — and how to shut it down without slowing anyone.
For twenty years, privileged access management (PAM) was an endpoint discipline: vault the credentials, strip local admin rights, broker and record the sessions. It worked because privilege lived where the controls did.
Today, infrastructure runs in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, crown-jewel data sits in SaaS, and a fast-growing fleet of service accounts, pipelines, and AI agents holds always-on permissions no vault has ever seen.
Attackers have noticed: they no longer break in, they log in — and inherit every standing entitlement that identity has accumulated.
Use the checklist below to audit how far your privilege programme actually extends.