Cybersecurity is a vital consideration for the operation of any business. The rise of technology and digital innovations means a rise in cyber threats and security risks. The fact is, the vast majority of hacking related data breaches are due to credentials and passwords being stolen through a variety of methods. This means that password security for all users and applications in a company is really the main gate to keep when protecting against cyber attacks.
SSO solutions can offer a large increase in productivity, reduced down time, increased ease of workflow, and a lot more. However, single sign-on programs do offer a heavy payoff for cyberhackers stealing employee credentials.
An SSO password manager can offer solutions for all these problems, and balances to many of the weaknesses. An SSO along with a password manager can be a company’s secret weapon.
Let’s take a closer look at SSO’s, password managers, and how they can work together to give higher work efficiency and greater security.
What Is A Single Sign-On?
An SSO, at its core, is an aggregate for passwords for various applications, services, and websites. This means a user can sign into one service which will allow them authentication for use and access to many services or programs. One password to rule them all. A single set of credentials that will then serve to sign in to any user application.
This can be a noticeable boost in productivity when used by whole teams of employees for whole hosts of applications, websites, and services. When employees can have 10, 20, even up to 100 passwords stored, automated SSO login can save a lot of time and headache.
What Is A Password Manager
A password manager does just that. It manages your passwords. All of your passwords in all of the ways. This can be quite a lot of work when dealing with many passwords, changing passwords, remembering secure complex passwords, and all other areas of password creation and security.
Creating and storing complex and secure passwords is so important for business efficiency and threat protection. If a business does not use a password manager system, employees will not undergo the necessary measures to ensure adequate security, and no matter how organized an employee is, remembering many complex security codes and being able to use them quickly without error will never be comparable to a digital system.
How Do They Work Together?
Each of these features can offer a collection of critical safeguarding security capabilities to a business. When they are brought together is where they really shine however. Integrating a password manager with single sign-on features can benefit a business and its employees in a number of ways.
Password managers recognize weak or reused passwords and can instantly root out where a security risk may be hiding. This can also offer greater visibility for IT departments.
A password manager holds all of your various information. An SSO allows for easily accessed authentication. A password manager can offer encrypted storage for credential information and can store API credentials for easy user access through the SSO. Some of the functionality shortcoming associated with SSOs or password managers alone can be eliminated by using an integrated system. Access across all devices and role specific shared accesses can be a real game changer.
How Is This Better Than An SSO Alone?
There are major functional and security gaps found in using SSO by itself. SSO identity providers do not offer encrypted data storage, API credentials, zero knowledge encryption, or encrypted private files. Many websites or applications might not be protected with an SSO alone because they are not compatible with certain protocols such as SAML or LDAP. Password managers can fill in these gaps and give a full spectrum coverage of access and security.
While SAML-based apps will be covered with SSO alone, functionality with social media sites, offline access, and native apps will not be supported. With an SSO password manager there is much more versatility in access and functionality. This includes shared passwords which can be essential to business operations.
The Security Benefits Of An SSO Password Manager
A joint SSO password manager system will give the opportunity for the oversight and enforcement of company security policies. Using these systems can help enforce using unique passwords and or 2FA access or other password systems. This can also allow for separating access across different company roles. IP allowances can be put in place.
These systems can be used to enforce compliance to standards such as HIPAA, DPA, FINRA and GDPR, to ensure any provision or regulations are being met.
A password manager can allow for a method to securely share a credential to specific accounts that need to be accessed by multiple team members. By having team access to the desired account without directly passing unsecured credentials, this can be a great way to minimize security gaps.
