With hackers around almost every corner, digital enterprise needs password protection and secure login verification. It’s not surprising information, but safely logging into applications, web resources, and other systems has been a concern for in business for years. Even in light of the 2018 online security breaches, the most popular passwords of 2018 — some being in their top spot for five years — were “123456” and “password.”
Attending the need for secure logins, Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions have been brought into business and well-received. As an alternative to standard login functions, SSO is a user authentication service that allows users to use one expansive login (username and password, for example) for accessing applications in a safe and reliable way. Giving certain rights to specific users, SSO makes it easier for users to access the applications and information they need across an organization’s infrastructure. It can also improve productivity and eliminate downtime by making logging in and moving between applications more efficient.
SSO is also applied to online resources used across business units; referred to as web-SSO, it gives fast, widespread access to important information online. With secure identity sharing, users only need to provide credentials once and they have access to multiple web resources, which saves time and money.
It’s easy to see why implementing an SSO can be convenient and safe for users, and thus, gives the business a leg up. With a solid SSO applied to both back end application users and site visitors, businesses significantly improve various aspects of the employee and customer experience. Here are some additional ways that employees, and even customers, can benefit from SSO:
- With more convenient and transparent access to user applications, your company can reduce back end/help desk costs, reduce the risk of hackers getting weak passwords, and potentially improve regulation compliance.
- SSO can help in partnerships or collaborations; the easier it is for all parties to enter an application or site, the more smoothly projects can be carried out.
- Applying SSO to the front end of your site, customers can spend less time logging in/form filing, which will give make their experience easier and faster. A better experience for your customers means better conversions and more revenue for you.
There’s a number of software and technology companies that offer SSO services for both applications and online resources. The right choice for you depends on the size of your business, the number of applications/resources, data types, access needs, and a few more contingencies. Whatever your need is, there’s an SSO service provider that’s right for you.
Though it’s efficient and mostly secure, SSO can be prone to hacks and breaches. One worry, for example, is if a hacker gets access to the SSO username and password for an application/web resource, they get access to every other application and web resource the company uses. There’s also concern about there being one point of failure with SSO implementation — i.e., one set of highly valuable credentials — and that if hackers get that, they can wreak havoc on company data and information. Yet, most providers of SSO put significant efforts into strengthening the security of your credentials and layering user servers with protection. Ultimately, having a login system like SSO will be a better measure of secure system verification than having individual usernames and passwords for every user.
If you’re thinking about implementing the best possible SSO solution for your business, please reach out by commenting on this post or contacting one of our experienced IT professionals to get you started on the right track.