Security leaders believe that passwordless authentication will help IT teams, by providing them more control alongside a seamless login experience
CISOs acknowledge that a passwordless authentication strategy may seem otherworldly, especially in the security domain. Passwords have been at the core of keeping IT, and digital lives secure for several decades. Even today, everyone is habituated to having to input credentials when they wish to access a digital account or device. Security leaders point out that as technologies and software upgrades and advances and the workforce continues to operate from remote locations, the numbers of online accounts have continued to grow.
For organizations, keeping a constant track of the vast number of account details has become a major headache, especially as individual employees and end-users ignore password hygiene. This scenario has undergone a slow but steady change; however, the password experience is still universal.
A majority of the breaches occur as employees and organizations ignore the importance of passwords in the overall security posture and continue to use and reuse easy to hack, weak passwords. Most breaches use brute force or use stolen or lost credentials. It raises the question as to why enterprises continue relying on such authentication forms.
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CIOs say that it is impossible to eliminate the passwords; and a passwordless measure may prove to be a solution for many security and authentication issues. Experienced security leaders believe that providing a passwordless experience for end-users may be the enterprises’ new normal future.
Remote workforce accelerates the shift to a passwordless strategy
The overnight shift to a remote workforce forced organizations to adapt their business operations to be remote employees compatible rapidly. IT leaders were forced to restructure the conventional strategies to manage employees working outside of the secure office environment, speeding up the digital transformation process.
Organizations have continued to travel through long-term remote work and the security issues that come with this change, like no visibility, insecure networks, etc. Deployment of new solutions will be the top priority for IT leaders in 2021. Identifying solutions that allow remote employees to have secured and uncomplicated access will be critical in supporting business continuity. Passwordless authentication may prove to the required solution, and more enterprises may implement it.
Advantages of passwordless authentication
Security leaders believe that the biggest advantage of implementing passwordless authentication is a significant increase in security. They feel that eliminating the employees’ need to use and manage passwords will eliminate the risk. When employees no longer depend on multiple credentials, it reduces the worry of keeping track of credential lists. Poor password hygiene is also eliminated.
Different types of identity and access management (IAM) solutions can help deploy strong security in the enterprise. Deployment of solutions like enterprise password management (EPM), biometric multifactor authentication (MFA), and single sign-on. It strengthens the enterprise’s overall security posture and makes it less susceptible to cyber threats.
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Passwordless authentication also frees up the time spent by employees in changing and inputting passwords. It reduces stress on the IT department and enables them to redirect their time and energy to more critical tasks.
Seamless login experience is the other major benefit of passwordless authentication—utilization of biometrics and other integrations to improve user experience compared to inputting complex passwords. The process is convenient and faster and will help reduce the frustration associated with forgotten or stolen credentials. IT teams can exercise complete control even in a distributed work environment with passwordless authentication IAM methods.
