Password-less authentication: the next chapter
Part 2 of 2
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Security Benefits of Passwordless Authentication
Passwordless authentication protects your critical business systems in the following ways:
- Passwordless authentication reduces risky user behavior
In the enterprise, passwordless practices eliminate the need for users to rely on consumer-grade digital wallets, Excel spreadsheets, or sticky notes to store their passwords. While consumer-grade password managers are useful for personal use, they do not meet the enterprise’s requirements for consistency, monitoring, and reporting. They also place the responsibility for password maintenance on users rather than IT security experts. 
- Passwordless authentication offers better protection against password theft
People often take the path of least resistance when it comes to passwords, creating ones that are easy to remember and type—which also makes them easy to crack. You can find many such passwords readily available for purchase on the dark web.
Cybercriminals have a wide array of tools at their disposal for brute-force attacks, pass-the-hash (PtH) attacks, and other attacks focused on stealing and using passwords. For these reasons, relying solely on passwords is not enough to protect sensitive accounts. 
Passwordless authentication makes it harder for malicious actors to breach your cybersecurity defenses. Passwordless authentication reduces attack vectors and the risk that cybercriminals will exploit stolen credentials to escalate privileges and move laterally. 
Passwordless authentication is much stronger than passwords, offering a higher risk profile based on the assurance level—always at assurance level 2 for the authenticator and generally classified at assurance level 3 for the authenticator ( according to NIST SP 800-63 ).  
Passwordless authentication makes it harder for malicious actors to breach your cybersecurity defenses. Simply put, it reduces the risk that cybercriminals will steal and use passwords and other privileged credentials. 
- Passwordless authentication eliminates the need to share passwords
Password sharing is a way for users to avoid paying extra for services, making it a major source of lost revenue for subscription service providers. It is also an easy way for IT teams to maintain access to systems when someone is out of the office or on vacation.
However, password sharing poses a significant security risk because it allows multiple users to access critical systems and makes it impossible to determine which user performed which action. Compliance reporting, audits, and post-incident investigations are virtually impossible. 
Passwordless authentication eliminates the possibility of password sharing. If users never even see their passwords, they cannot share them with others.
Productivity Benefits of Passwordless Authentication
In addition to improving security, passwordless authentication offers significant productivity benefits.
- Benefits for regular end users
Logging in is undoubtedly a tedious process that no one enjoys. The faster it is, the better. Having to remember passwords for every app (I have over 1,100 accounts!), change them regularly, and reset them causes delays that are eliminated by passwordless authentication.
Logging into apps using familiar, everyday actions—such as swiping a finger, scanning a face, or entering a PIN—enhances the user experience. This leads to increased productivity and greater user satisfaction.
- Benefits for IT and Help Desk
Fewer passwords mean fewer calls to the help desk to reset passwords and unlock accounts.
In response to a security incident, the IT department can become overwhelmed by response and containment tasks, which significantly impacts productivity. Reducing the attack surface by replacing passwords with passwordless security reduces incidents and, as a result, lowers operational overhead.
Is passwordless authentication right for my organization?
Before you rush into it, it’s important to remember that passwordless authentication always comes with some risks and challenges. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin your journey toward becoming a passwordless organization.
- Vulnerable systems require monitoring and layers of defense
Even with passwordless authentication in place, critical enterprise systems remain vulnerable to unauthorized users and cyberattacks. Cybercriminals can potentially intercept links, PINs, and email notifications and use them to gain access.
It’s a good idea to integrate passwordless authentication into a comprehensive privilege management strategy to improve visibility, security, and control. This way, you can centralize access management and limit privilege creep and data exposure.
- Provision and migrate to new devices
One of the main challenges of a passwordless experience arises when users get new devices, which must be enrolled or migrated from an old device. This poses several risks when preparing new devices for a passwordless strategy. This process typically requires a backup key or recovery key in case the old device stops working or is lost.
- Continue to educate users on security best practices
Not all users may immediately understand the need for passwordless experiences, and some may be wary of or skeptical about the change at first.
Consider hosting a luncheon seminar or workshop to review the transition to passwordless experiences and explain why the system is changing. This will allow you to answer questions and guide users through the process.
- Ensure careful planning and execution
Companies that fail to properly implement passwordless architectures risk security vulnerabilities as well as access and performance issues. 
The easiest way to avoid implementation issues is to work with expert third-party passwordless experience providers who can help you get up and running smoothly.
- Manage secrets using Enterprise PAM
Secrets need to be rotated periodically to mitigate risks. However, manually rotating secrets is time-consuming and creates extra work for IT operations teams and users.
By usingPAM solutions, you can rotate secrets on a regular and random basis without disrupting the user experience. This approach is much more efficient and eliminates wasted time for both users and IT teams.
How does Delinea’s PAM solution enable passwordless authentication?
Delinea is at the forefront of passwordless authentication with invisible privileged access management. Invisible PAM allows you to manage multiple types of credentials transparently and securely. Operating entirely in the background, Invisible PAM is designed to keep passwords hidden while ensuring users remain productive. By deploying Invisible PAM, your organization can stop requiring employees to memorize and manage passwords and instead use modern, alternative methods to grant and manage access. 
The Delinea PAM platform provides invisible PAM, enabling passwordless MFA during authentication and strong authentication for robust identity assurance. Use it when logging into the Secret Server vault, performing secret verification, and initiating remote sessions. Use it when logging into the server and elevating privileges using Server Suite and Cloud Suite. With the Delinea Platform, all PAM needs are covered. 
Source: Delinea
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