Implementing an excellent cybersecurity strategy is paramount to keeping your organisation’s data and workflows secure. In fact, over 39% of businesses have experienced cybersecurity breaches in the past 12 months.

One of the best ways to both strengthen your cybersecurity posture and also improve efficiency is to implement a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution throughout your organisation. There are many benefits to an SSO solution, and implementing a platform such as Azure Active Directory can have many benefits throughout your company.

For any modern company, cybersecurity is essential, and SSO is the easiest and best way to improve your cybersecurity strategy without requiring major infrastructure changes.

That’s why in this article, we’re going to go over the benefits of SSO and how you can implement SSO in your business.

What is Single Sign-On?

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method that allows users to log in to multiple websites and applications with a single set of credentials. 

This means that you can log into important applications and systems on your device with a single password or alternative authentication factor (such as biometrics or a security key).

SSO works by integrating systems and applications with a single login platform such as Azure Active Directory. The integration allows those applications to see the login platform as a trusted application, giving the login platform the administrative power to unlock said systems and applications automatically.

With this, users can simply log in to the SSO platform to be able to log in to multiple applications. 

This means that they will not need to authenticate when accessing the multiple applications linked to the SSO platform, which has many additional benefits regarding productivity and workflow as well as several security benefits.

Top 5 SSO Benefits

Strengthen Security Posture

Single Sign-On has many benefits regarding security, as it reduces the number of risk factors and potential weaknesses within your cybersecurity posture —

• More Complex Passwords: Using an SSO platform means that you only have to remember one password rather than multiple. 

This means that you can make a stronger password, as you only have to remember that specific password as opposed to multiple passwords.

• Less Repeated Passwords: When needing to remember multiple passwords, ‘password fatigue’ is a common problem in which people repeat passwords for ease of memory. 

The use of SSO means that you’re not repeating passwords on multiple applications, which reduces the risk of a breach among platforms. 

Using repeated passwords means that the security of your password is only as good as the cybersecurity of the places that have that password, meaning that a leak in any of those applications could be catastrophic.

• Multi-Factor Authentication: SSO works incredibly well with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). 

MFA is another great way to strengthen your organisation’s security posture, as it means that a breach such as a password leak won’t provide access. Using SSO means that you don’t have to use MFA on each platform and instead only need to use it on the SSO login, saving time and also strengthening the single possible breach point.

All of these benefits are just some of the ways that using SSO can benefit your organisation’s security strategy. When paired with MFA in a tool like Azure Active Directory, SSO is easily one of the best ways to protect your organisation from password breaches and hacks.

Improve User Experience

Single sign-on improves the process of logging into platforms. Instead of having to take time logging into each platform that you want to use, an SSO platform means that you can save time and lessen frustration significantly.

When switching between different apps, it can be easy to remember which passwords are for which applications. Using SSO also means that you never have to do the whole process of trying all your passwords, which can make the whole process far easier and quicker.

Reduce IT Support Costs

Forgetting passwords is a major pain, and usually leads to having to contact IT support within your organisation. 

With an SSO solution (especially with Multi-Factor Authentication), there will ultimately be fewer passwords forgotten overall throughout your organisation. This means less IT support is needed, which reduces IT support costs overall.

Furthermore, an SSO solution can also allow users to reset their password using other authentication factors (biometrics, SMS or email code, etc.) meaning that you don’t need to have IT staff dedicated to resetting passwords.

Increase Productivity

Most workplace users have to switch between applications and programs to undertake their work. Having to log in to each application can take up time, which can lead to less productivity and a worsened workflow.

SSO makes the process far easier, as all of the applications will be accessible instantly. This means that users do not have to break their workflow to log in to a platform and figure out their password to undertake their work.

Improve Password Hygiene

In addition to the prior security considerations, password hygiene is crucial to ensuring that your company remains secure and unsusceptible to breaches. An SSO platform allows you to enforce password hygiene much more effectively.

You can do this in tools like Azure Active Directory by enforcing certain password requirements and making users change their passwords after a certain period. This makes your whole business ecosystem more secure, as you can standardise password hygiene throughout your organisation.

Ready to Implement SSO?

Single Sign-On is one of the most effective ways to improve your cybersecurity with ease, while also improving your company’s productivity and reducing costs throughout your organisation. 

By using an SSO platform such as Azure Active Directory, you can easily improve your company’s security posture significantly and ensure that password hygiene is high across the institution.

Azure Active Directory is the best place to start if you’re looking to implement SSO. Wet can help you get started with SSO and ensure that your company can attain the benefits of using Active Directory with ease.

Get in touch today and see how we can help!