Glossary

Privileged User Auditing

Compliance and Regulations

What is Privileged User Auditing?

Privileged user auditing is the process of monitoring, recording, and reviewing the actions of users with elevated access rights, such as system administrators, engineers, or third-party vendors, who can modify critical systems, data, or security settings. This auditing practice captures detailed activity logs to ensure accountability, detect misuse, and meet regulatory requirements for high-risk access.

Why is Privileged User Auditing Important?

Privileged accounts represent some of the highest-risk assets in any environment. They provide deep access to sensitive systems and have the potential to cause significant harm, either unintentionally or maliciously. Regulatory frameworks such as NERC CIP, IEC 62443, TSA SD02E, NIS2, and NIST 800-53 mandate rigorous auditing of privileged user activity to reduce risk and establish a chain of accountability.

Privileged user auditing helps organizations:

Track configuration changes, system commands, or file modifications.
Detect anomalous behavior or insider threats.
Ensure that elevated access is used appropriately and only when necessary.
Produce verifiable audit trails for compliance reviews or investigations.
Audit logs for compliance reporting.

In operational technology (OT) and industrial control system (ICS) environments, privileged access can directly impact physical processes, making real-time auditing and historical session visibility essential to protect operational safety and regulatory compliance.

How Does Xona Help with Privileged User Auditing?

Xona enforces and logs all privileged access through its secure, protocol-isolated gateway, capturing both metadata and optional full session recordings of administrative or high-risk user activity. Every session is tagged with user identity, role, target system, access duration, and activity markers, allowing security teams to quickly review, investigate, and report on privileged actions.

Access is governed by role-based policies, time-bound controls, and credential injection, ensuring that privileged users never see or reuse sensitive credentials. This reduces the risk of shared accounts, credential leakage, or unauthorized privilege escalation

With Xona, organizations gain the visibility and forensic evidence needed to satisfy privileged user auditing requirements across a wide range of compliance frameworks, while maintaining operational efficiency in sensitive, high-risk environments.

Frequently Asked Questions

What regulations require privileged user auditing for compliance?

Standards like NERC CIP, IEC 62443, TSA SD02E, NIST 800-53, and NIS2 mandate auditing of privileged user activity to ensure traceability, prevent abuse, and support regulatory reporting.

Why is auditing privileged users critical in OT and ICS environments?

Privileged access in OT and ICS environments can directly impact physical systems and safety, making it essential to log and review every administrative action for compliance and operational assurance.

What types of activities are typically captured in privileged user audits?

Privileged user auditing captures commands executed, configuration changes, file modifications, session times, access methods, and user identities, all ensuring complete visibility into elevated access.

How does Xona record and monitor privileged access sessions?

Xona logs all privileged access through its secure gateway and supports full session video recording as well, tagging each session with user identity, role, system accessed, and detailed activity markers.

Can Xona prevent credential exposure during privileged user sessions?

Yes, Xona uses credential injection when authenticating user access to target critical systems without exposing system credentials to the user, thereby eliminating the risk of credential theft, reuse, or mismanagement.

How does Xona help meet audit and investigation requirements?

Xona provides immutable audit logs and video evidence of all privileged sessions, which can be exported to SIEM or GRC tools to support investigations, compliance reviews, and regulatory audits.