Your business’s cybersecurity is vital. After all, just like investing in physical security to ensure that nobody robs your physical property, your digital assets are only as secure as your investment in your digital security.
However, while they were once the best way to protect your business, passwords are slowly becoming more and more weak. One of the best methods of enhancing the security that passwords bring is by implementing Single Sign-On (SSO). It’s an effortless addition to implement but it can make your whole business more secure all around.
In this article, we’re going to go over the benefits of Single-Sign-On, and how passwordless authentication can truly ensure that your business remains safe from anyone who wants to try to gain credentials from your business.
What is Single Sign-On (SSO)?
Single Sign-On is an authentication method that essentially lets you use one set of credentials to log into multiple accounts, applications, and websites. This means that you only need to login to one portal to access all of your connected accounts.
Let’s say that you utilise Microsoft Entra as your SSO method, connected to both Microsoft applications such as Microsoft 365, and other external applications such as a CRM portal and a suite of creative applications. You can use Microsoft Entra to log into your system, and all of the above — all using one login.
Single Sign-On works in four steps —
- Login: You log in using your username and password on your main authentication system (such as Microsoft Entra).
- Authentication: The portal verifies your identity using credentials. Sometimes you’ll also use other factors of authentication such as MFA to confirm the login.
- Token Generation: Upon verification, a token is generated. This token is a unique, secure token that will be used to log into other applications.
- Access: Whenever you go to sign onto an application that supports SSO, the token is given instead and saves you from having to log in manually.
This is quite commonly used for enterprise, as it lets you put all of the key functions of your business into one login, but is also used by many different providers in the day-to-day world — companies like Google and Facebook have single sign-on for their services and a host of other services.
Benefits of SSO for Organisations
There are lots of benefits that come with introducing Single Sign-On into your business. After all, not having to remember a billion different passwords for all of the applications used in day-to-day will mean that you can focus on having one more secure password that you can remember.
Here are some of the other benefits of SSO —
- Convenience: Using SSO, you only need to remember one password, and once you’re logged in you can just open the applications you need and automatically remain logged in.
- Credential Theft: SSO gives you the ability to remove the number of ways that you can be vulnerable to credential theft. After all, the more passwords you create, the more of a chance there is that you could give access to your organisation through one of those passwords.
- Complicated Passwords: The headache of having to make a bunch of complicated passwords is eliminated with SSO. There’s no need to remember everything and spend time making passwords that are secure enough — just a singular password that you can update regularly and keep secure.
Introduction to Passwordless Authentication
As mentioned previously, passwords are simply just becoming weaker and weaker. With more data breaches happening regularly, and with better solutions becoming commonplace, passwords are slowly moving towards obsolescence.
Passwordless authentication is slowly becoming more and more popular. This essentially means using a method of authentication other than your password to be able to log in to a system — from email ‘magic links’ to biometrics, passwordless authentication is everywhere.
The most common forms of passwordless authentication online are email/SMS authentication — either using a magic link or a code — and MFA authentication using a third-party authenticator on another device, As well as this, biometric authentication is commonly featured in most modern devices and operating systems (such as TouchID and FaceID).
Advantages of Passwordless Authentication
Passwordless authentication is far better than using a password. After all, passwords are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and using passwordless authentication will give you lots of benefits that are relevant to the trials and tribulations of the modern technological world.
Here are some of the benefits of passwordless authentication —
- Security: Passwords are generally quite weak in the modern world. Passwordless authentication uses more secure authentication methods to help counteract this, as well as to counteract things like brute force attacks.
- User Experience: Other authentication methods are just more elegant than passwords. Having to click a link on an email is just easier than having to type into a password portal to log in, and especially when using a password manager instead of an SSO solution, having to find and remember that password can just be finicky.
- Cost Savings: A lot of IT time is taken by resetting passwords and gaining access to user accounts, so using methods that are harder to mess up means that fewer resources are going into recovery and can be used in other places.
How We Can Help
Single Sign-On and passwordless authentication are two key technologies that are helping businesses around the world become more secure. As passwords become a thing of the past, passwordless authentication and SSO are simply the future of authentication.
Using tools like Microsoft Entra and taking a modern approach to authentication will let you take advantage of these benefits, and will take your business to the next level.
If you’re looking to get started with SSO or passwordless authentication but need a helping hand, reach out to us today. We’re here to get you started and will make sure that you have the gold standard of security.
Get in touch with us now and see how we can help.