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This guide breaks down the Top 10 privileged accounts that represent the highest risk in any organization and why protecting them should be your top priority. You’ll learn how each account type is commonly exploited, the specific attack paths adversaries rely on, and the practical controls required to reduce their blast radius.
You’ll also get a concise hardening checklist and an overview of how the Segura® Identity Security Platform strengthens visibility, detection, and protection across these high-value identities, especially those with access to sensitive information, critical systems, and core Active Directory infrastructure.
Holiday Downtime and Privileged Account Risk
Because attackers don’t take time off, your privileged identities shouldn’t be left unguarded.
The holidays bring quieter offices, reduced staff, slower response times, and the perfect conditions for attackers to exploit weak identity controls. Year after year, major breaches originate from compromised privileged accounts, often the result of unmanaged privileged accounts, weak access to privileged accounts, or poorly managed privileged account lifecycles.
These accounts represent the most dangerous types of privileged accounts in any organization, often referred to as the “keys to the digital kingdom.”
So while the rest of the world powers down for festive downtime, defenders should turn their attention to the privileged identities that matter most. This is the definitive holiday-season hardening list: the Top 10 Privileged Accounts you must protect before you go offline.
1. Domain Administrator Accounts
The classic “game over” account. A Domain Administrator can access or modify anything across your AD forest, making it the most valuable credential for attackers.
Holiday Risks:
- Golden ticket attacks
- AD object manipulation
- Rapid lateral movement
Protect By: Privileged Access Management (PAM) vaulting, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Just-in-Time (JIT) access, tiered admin model
2. Cloud Global Admin / Root Accounts
Cloud root identities such as AWS Root Account or Azure Global Admin accounts wield full control over cloud infrastructure identity, workloads, networking, storage, and security.
Holiday Risks:
- IAM misconfiguration
- Secret key theft
- Full tenant compromise
Protect By: Hardware MFA, break-glass procedures, disable long-lived keys
3. Service Accounts (Humanless, High-Privilege, Forgotten)
A Service Account often has more privileges than users and is rarely monitored. These can easily become unmanaged privileged accounts, quietly accumulating access over time.
Holiday Risks:
- Hard-coded passwords
- Never-rotated credentials
- Lateral movement through machine trust
Protect By: Automated rotation, least privilege, machine identity lifecycle management
4. Privileged Session Accounts (Jump Boxes & Bastion Hosts)
Any identity used to access a jump host or PAW is a high-value Privileged Session Account, often granting direct access to production systems.
Holiday Risks:
- Hijacked remote sessions
- Clipboard or credential capture
- RDP tunneling
Protect By: Session recording, isolated admin workstations, Zero Trust access controls
5. Break-Glass / Emergency Access Accounts
A Break‑Glass Account exists for when MFA fails or the directory is unavailable. These are often poorly monitored and insanely powerful.
Holiday Risks:
- Unnoticed misuse during quiet periods
- Stored in plaintext
- Weak or never-rotated passwords
Protect By: Tamper-proof storage, quarterly validation, automated alerts on login
6. Database Administrator (DBA) Accounts
A Database Administrator Account typically has access to the most sensitive asset of all: data.
Holiday Risks:
- Mass data exfiltration
- Data corruption or deletion
- Privilege escalation to OS-level accounts
Protect By: Query auditing, network segmentation, vaulting, JIT access
7. DevOps & CI/CD Pipeline Accounts
Accounts tied to CI/CD platforms (GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps), such as CI/CD Pipeline Account, often have read/write access across source code and deployment pipelines.
Holiday Risks:
- Supply-chain tampering
- Secret exposure
- Malicious code pushes
Protect By: Rotate tokens, enforce signed commits, limit repo permissions
8. Hypervisor / Virtualization Admin Accounts
A Hypervisor Administrator can shut down entire environments, manipulate snapshots, or move workloads, impacting critical systems instantly.
Holiday Risks:
- Ransomware targeting ESXi
- VM deletion or encryption
- Lateral movement across virtual networks
Protect By: Isolating consoles, enforcing MFA, disabling remote access pathways
9. Identity Provider (IdP) Admin Accounts
An IdP Administrator Account controls authentication, federation, SSO, MFA, and directory sync, effectively the entire trust fabric.
Holiday Risks:
- Token forgery
- Conditional access bypass
- Federation hijacking
Protect By: Tiered roles, vaulted credentials, strong MFA, conditional access lockdowns
10. Backup & Recovery Admin Accounts
A Backup Administrator manages the last line of defense. If an attacker gains control, they can destroy or corrupt backups before deploying ransomware.
Holiday Risks:
- Backup deletion
- Snapshot modification
- Ransomware dwell-time strategy
Protect By: Immutable backups, Vaulted Credentials, air-gapped replicas, restricted access paths
Why These 10 Matter More During the Holidays
- Reduced staffing
- Slower response times
- Higher reliance on automation
- Attackers exploiting seasonal distraction
- Increased risk of unnoticed anomalies
- Perfect timing for privilege escalation dwell time
Attackers know this. Defenders must act before stepping away.
Even highly skilled system administrators are stretched thin during holidays, increasing security risks across privileged access pathways. Hardening these identities now dramatically reduces the risk of catastrophic compromise.
Holiday Privileged Access Hardening Checklist
Before you log off for a well-earned break, run through this 10-point identity security checklist to reduce your blast radius over the holidays:
1. Enforce MFA on all privileged accounts
Especially Domain Admin, Global Admin, and Break-Glass accounts.
2. Rotate service account credentials
Eliminate hard-coded passwords and long-lived secrets.
3. Validate break-glass & emergency access accounts
Ensure passwords are sealed, tested, and monitored.
4. Disable inactive administrative accounts
Remove dormant privileges that bad actors look for.
5. Apply Just-In-Time (JIT) access for admin roles
Reduce standing privilege wherever possible.
6. Review all privileged role assignments
Audit AWS/Azure/GCP root access, IdP admins, vSphere admins, and DBA roles.
7. Check CI/CD tokens and automation keys
Rotate, constrain, and monitor pipeline credentials.
8. Lock down RDP, SSH, and bastion pathways
Enforce Zero Trust segmentation and privileged session control.
9. Validate backup immutability and access controls
Ensure ransomware cannot modify or purge backups.
10. Patch & harden privileged access workstations (PAWs)
Isolate them, remove internet access, and apply latest updates.
A few hours of preparation now can prevent weeks of incident response in January.
Protecting Privileged Accounts Is Easier with the Segura® Identity Security Platform
The holidays highlight a universal truth: identity is the new perimeter, and privileged accounts are the new crown jewels.
The Segura® Identity Security Platform is designed specifically to help organizations protect their most sensitive identities without slowing down operations.
Segura® helps you secure privileged accounts with:
The platform delivers full-spectrum privileged identity protection by automatically detecting risky access combinations, misconfigurations, and escalation paths across AD, cloud, and SaaS.
It continuously monitors for privilege misuse from suspicious logins to dormant admin accounts while enforcing Just-In-Time access to eliminate standing privilege on high-risk identities.
Automated credential hygiene strengthens authentication by identifying stale passwords, non-rotating service accounts, and exposed secrets, and end-to-end visibility ensures complete coverage across human and non-human identities, including machine accounts, pipeline tokens, and break-glass access.
This capability is essential when managing privileged account lifecycles and ensuring no unmanaged privileged accounts slip through the cracks.
See how Segura eliminates unmanaged privileged accounts ›
Final Thoughts
This list gives you a practical, reality-based roadmap to harden your environment before taking time off:
- Reinforce MFA
- Rotate stale credentials
- Lock down emergency accounts
- Enforce JIT and least privilege
- Monitor privileged activity
- Validate break-glass procedures
With these protections in place, you can head into the holidays with peace of mind knowing your highest-risk identities and access to your most critical systems are locked down.
