Mr. Srikanth Mandru

Zero-Trust Privileged Access for SMBs: A Practical Path

Abstract:

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are now prime targets for attackers who exploit weakly governed privileged accounts, shared admin passwords, and flat internal networks. At the same time, most SMBs lack the budget, staff, and time to deploy heavyweight enterprise Privileged Access Management (PAM) platforms. This session presents a practical, zero-trust–aligned approach to securing privileged access that SMBs can actually implement with limited resources.

The presentation will outline a step-by-step path: starting with discovering and classifying privileged accounts, enforcing strong authentication, and eliminating standing (always-on) privileges in favor of just-in-time, just-enough access. We will cover simple patterns for securing admin access to servers, cloud consoles, and SaaS applications using affordable tools, built-in platform features, and lightweight automation. Attendees will see how to layer controls such as MFA, role-based and policy-based access, session monitoring, and basic secrets management without disrupting daily operations.

By the end of the talk, participants will take away a concise roadmap, reference architectures, and a checklist they can use to move from ad-hoc admin access to a measurable zero-trust privileged access model—reducing breach risk and audit findings while staying within realistic SMB constraints.

 

Profile:

Sri Kanth Mandru is a cybersecurity engineer and Forbes Technology Council member focused on Privileged Access Management, secrets governance, and Zero Trust. He builds automation-first security frameworks that protect identities and credentials across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, reducing insider and credential-driven risk with measurable outcomes. As an IEEE program secretary and author, he promotes practical, human-centered approaches to identity security.