With the increasing frequency of data breaches and cyber attacks, it’s more crucial than ever to have a strong password management system in place. Corporate password management can be complicated, but there are several solutions available that can be layered together for more secure access. Here’s what you need to know about implementing password management systems for your business, from why it matters to how you can effectively secure your data using different systems together.
Why Corporate Password Management Matters
A report from Duke University noted that “more than 80 percent of U.S. companies indicate their systems have been successfully hacked in an attempt to steal, change or make public important data.” The researchers noticed that the majority of successful hacking attempts were carried out against smaller businesses with less than 1000 employees, though larger companies were not without damages thanks to lax cybersecurity and underutilized data security training and staffing. Statista adds to this by noting that there were more than 8.17 million user accounts’ data exposed to unsecured sources in Q4 of 2023, and overall 40.42 million accounts were compromised over the entire year. This leaves millions of people and businesses open to data misuse and fraud.
Many of these data breaches come from unsecured account credentials. It’s easy for employees to lose, forget, or have their passwords stolen, especially if they are accessing their corporate accounts from external sources like remote working devices. Data skimming from public wifi is a classic scamming technique that pulls unencrypted data like usernames and passwords. Successful phishing scams – designed to imitate official sources such as banks and account helpdesks – can lift credentials from unsuspecting victims quickly. If hackers and fraudsters gain access to your information and there are no security layers to thwart them, they can easily lift significant amounts of money and data from your systems before they’re ever detected, which can take a long time to recover if it can be recovered at all.
Using password management systems serves to both simplify the account access process and add layers of protection to it. A good password management system allows you to easily track and manage the expected 70-80 passwords we use regularly across the internet. They allow you to use unique passwords across accounts, keeping them more secure than if you reused your credentials on the program level, and offer you methods for using your saved passwords across different devices safely through encrypted information. These programs allow individual users and businesses alike the ability to add layers that make it harder for scammers to get all of the information they need to access the accounts.
Corporate Password Management Solutions: MFA, SSO, IdP
To establish a password management system for your business, you should look into all of the options available to you. MFA, SSO, and IdP can all layer together to create a secure data system.
What are MFA, SSO, and IdP?
An identity provider (IdP) is a service that works to process the credentials of a user to ensure they’re valid and allowed to access the information they’re looking for. Users input their credentials and the IdP compares what they input to what’s on file. If it matches, gives them access to their information. If it doesn’t match, the user is blocked, keeping the data secure.
Single sign-on (SSO) is a system that allows users to use one set of credentials to access all of the accounts they need instead of having to access each account separately with different credentials across the board. This makes operating multiple accounts simultaneously and quickly easier and allows data to be more centralized.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a system that asks users to input secondary credentials, outside of a username or email and a password, to verify their identity. They might use factors such as biometrics (face scans or fingerprints), additional devices, authentication applications, or security questions. This makes it harder for a scammer or hacker to gain access to an account even if they have the user’s primary credentials.
How MFA, SSO, and IdP can be used together for password management
Ideally, you’ll want to use multiple layers of security together to create a secure password management system. If your passwords are stored with a secure IdP and can be accessed via SSO with MFA layered on top, there are then three hurdles to clear before the information is viewed rather than one or two. These further barriers between scammers and hackers and your sensitive data mean that you have a higher chance of being alerted to a break-in attempt long before it succeeds so that you can intervene.
How Photolok Improves Corporate Password Management
Photolok is a unique and secure authentication system that relies on images as verification. Users pick a set of images to act as their identifiers and label them. When someone enters their primary credentials, they’re prompted to select the correct image from a grid. Some images can be labeled “One-Time Use” for secure access in public spaces and secure temporary credential sharing. Images can also be labeled as “Duress,” which sends an alert to administrators if used that lets them know the account was forcefully accessed so that it can be secured quickly.
This system adds a layer of MFA to your password management system, which can be combined with SSO to create a secure wall between your data and those trying to access it that’s harder to break than a traditional password or secondary credential system. It’s resistant to artificial intelligence and machine learning attacks on top of providing lateral defense.
Conclusion
Corporate password management is a crucial aspect of maintaining data security, especially with the increasing number of cyber-attacks and data breaches. Companies need to prioritize implementing password management solutions such as MFA, SSO, and IdP to layer security and make it harder for scammers and hackers to access sensitive information. Photolok offers a unique and secure authentication system that adds an extra layer of security to password management systems.
By taking steps to safeguard their data, businesses can prevent significant financial losses and reputational damage, and protect their customers’ sensitive information.
If you’re interested in trying Photolok, you can schedule a demo with the sales team to see how the system could fit into your business’s operations.
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