Password-less authentication: more
Part 2/2
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Security benefits of passwordless authentication
Passwordless authentication protects your critical business systems in the following ways:
- Passwordless authentication mitigates risky user behavior
In the enterprise, password-free practices save users from having to use consumer digital wallets, Excel spreadsheets or sticky notes to store their passwords. While consumer password vaults are useful for personal use, they don't meet corporate requirements for consistency, monitoring and reporting. They also place the responsibility for password maintenance on the shoulders of users rather than IT security experts.
- Passwordless authentication offers better protection against password theft
People often take the path of least resistance with passwords and create ones that are easy to remember and type, which also makes them easy to crack. You'll find many passwords readily available for purchase on the dark web.
Cybercriminals have an abundance of tools at their disposal for brute-force, pass-the-hash (PtH) and other attacks focused on the theft and use of passwords. For these reasons, relying on passwords alone is not enough to protect sensitive accounts.
Passwordless authentication makes it harder for malicious actors to penetrate your cyber defenses. Passwordless authentication reduces attack vectors and the risk of cybercriminals exploiting stolen credentials to increase privileges and move laterally.
Passwordless authentication is much stronger than passwords, offering a higher risk profile based on assurance level, always at Authenticator Assurance Level 2 and generally classified at Authenticator Assurance Level 3 ( according to NIST SP 800-63 ).
Passwordless authentication makes it more difficult for malicious actors to penetrate your cyber defenses. Simply put, they reduce the risk of cybercriminals stealing and using passwords and other privileged credentials.
- Passwordless authentication eliminates password sharing
Password sharing is a way for users to avoid paying more for services, making it a major source of lost revenue for subscription service providers. It's also an easy way for IT teams sharing responsibility for maintaining access to systems when someone is away from the office or on vacation.
However, password sharing represents a significant security risk, as it allows multiple users to access critical systems and makes it impossible to know which user has performed which activity. Compliance reporting, audits and post-event investigation are virtually impossible.
Passwordless authentication eliminates the possibility of password sharing. If users never even see their passwords, they can't share them with others.
Productivity benefits of passwordless authentication
As well as improving security, password-free authentication offers interesting productivity benefits.
- Benefits for regular end users
Connecting is probably a mundane process that nobody enjoys. The faster, the better. Having to remember passwords for every application (I have over 1,100 accounts!), changing them regularly and resetting them causes delays that are eliminated with passwordless authentication.
Connecting to applications using familiar, everyday actions such as a finger swipe, face scan or PIN entry enhances the user experience. Productivity and user satisfaction.
- IT and help desk benefits
Fewer passwords means fewer calls to the helpdesk to reset passwords and unlock accounts.
In response to a security incident, the IT department can be overwhelmed by response and containment tasks, with a significant impact on productivity. Reducing the attack surface by replacing passwords with password-less security reduces incidents and, consequently, cuts operational overheads.
Is password-free right for my organization?
Before you rush in, it's important to remember that passwordless authentication always comes with a few risks and challenges. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin your journey to becoming a password-free organization.
- Vulnerable systems require monitoring and layers of defense
Even with password-less authentication in place, critical enterprise systems are still exposed to unauthorized users and cyber attacks. Cybercriminals can potentially intercept links, PIN codes and e-mail notifications and use them to gain access.
It's a good idea to integrate passwordless authentication into a comprehensive privilege management strategy for improved visibility, security and control. In this way, you can centralize access management and limit data drift and exposure.
- Provision and migrate to new devices
One of the main challenges of a password-free experience is when users get new devices, and these devices have to be enrolled or migrated from an old device. This creates several risks when preparing new devices for a password-free strategy. This process usually requires a backup or recovery key in case the old device no longer works or is lost.
- Continue to inform users about best safety practices
Not all users may immediately understand the need for password-free experiences, and some may fear or question the change at first.
Consider organizing a lunch-and-learn session or workshop to review the transition to password-free experiences and explain why the system is changing. This way, you can answer questions and guide users through the process.
- Careful orchestration and execution
Companies that fail to properly implement password-free architectures risk security vulnerabilities, as well as access and performance problems.
The easiest way to avoid implementation problems is to work with expert third-party passwordless experience activators who can help you get up and running properly.
- Managing secrets via Enterprise PAM
It is necessary to rotate secrets periodically to reduce risk. However, manually rotating secrets is time-consuming and creates extra work for IT operations teams and users.
Using PAM solutions, you can rotate secrets regularly and randomly without interrupting the user experience. This approach is much more efficient and eliminates wasted time for users and IT teams.
How does our Delinea PAM solution enable password-free authentication experiences?
Delinea is at the forefront of password-free authentication with invisible privilege access management. Invisible PAM lets you manage multiple types of secrets transparently and securely. Operating entirely in the background, Invisible PAM is designed to keep passwords hidden and users productive. By deploying Invisible PAM, your company can stop asking employees to remember and manage passwords, and use modern, alternative options for granting and managing access.
We achieve invisible PAM with the Delinea PAM platform, which makes passwordless MFA available during authentication and strong authentication for powerful identity assurance. Use it when connecting to the Secret Server safe, secret verification and remote session initiation. Use it when connecting to the server and elevating privileges using Server Suite and Cloud Suite. With Delinea Platform, all PAM bases are covered.
Source : Delinea
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