A privileged account is a login credential to a server, firewall, or another administrative account. Often, privileged accounts are referred to as admin accounts. Your Local Windows Admin accounts and Domain Admin accounts are examples of admin accounts. Other examples are Unix root accounts, Cisco enable, etc.

When we talk about privileged accounts we’re talking about the actual username and password; these two things together make up the account.

A privileged account is allowed to do more things (i.e. it has more privileges) than a normal account. Privileged accounts are doorways to an organization’s “kingdom”—the place where sensitive information is stored—and as such, they need to be very secure. Examples of sensitive information include medical records, credit card details, social security numbers, government files, and more.