The move to remote working by many companies both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic has seen considerable effort and investment in securing networks.
One of the chief areas that businesses need to pay extra attention to is the creation of strong passwords. Poor password practices are frequently exploited by cybercriminals and poor passwords one of the main ways that cyberattacks succeed.
The use of an Enterprise Password Management (EPM) solution will help your business improve cybersecurity and counter the threat from cyberattacks. It allows all employees to generate unique, strong passwords and save them securely in a password vault. An EPM solution is scalable across a remote workforce and gives more peace of mind to those responsible for preventing security breaches, as employees can be prevented from creating easy -to-remember but weak passwords that are vulnerable to brute force attacks.
It is important that cybersecurity teams to know which services, systems, and database on the business network each employee is required to access to complete their work duties and for appropriate permissions to be set for each service. It is important not to give employees access to systems and data that they do not need to complete their work duties. The greater the level of access and permissions, the more damaging a security breach will be if those credentials are compromised. The rule of least privilege should always be followed.
A system should be put in place that requires those individuals to set strong, unique passwords to protect against unauthorized access. This task can be made much easier with the implementation of a single sign-on (SSO) solution. This service means that individuals just have to remember one master password for their password vault in order to access all of their accounts.
Passwords only provide a single layer of protection, but multiple layers are necessary to block cyberattacks. A vital extra layer of protection comes from multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA means additional information is required before access is granted. A password and username alone is not sufficient. This means that, in the event that cybercriminals somehow come to be in possession of a set of login credentials, they will be prevented from accessing accounts and databases without the additional authentication factor. The information required for MFA will be something that only a legitimate employee has access to.
There is a great deal to be gained from implementing EPM, SSO, and MFA. Cyberattacks are now occurring at an unprecedented rate and businesses that do not have appropriate security protections in place are low hanging fruit for hackers. When all three of these methods are implemented together, security defenses will be practically impenetrable. Together, these solutions are classed as an identity and access management (IAM) solution.
Using an IAM will see to it that remotely-based workers remain safe in the face of cyber attacks while retaining easy access to the services they need to complete their work duties and projects.