3 - How Workforce Identity Transformation Propels You Forward

Adaptive MFA gives your team the ability to strengthen security without disrupting employee workflow. You’re able to give your users a consistent and convenient experience across all applications and resources. 

By leveraging a variety of authentication methods, you’re able to provide a frictionless experience. Users can authenticate to applications using a range of convenient methods such as push notifications on smartphones and IoT devices, YubiKey, voice, email and SMS one-time passcodes, desktop applications and more. 

Adaptive MFA also lets you use contextual factors and logic-based mechanisms—such as geolocation, time of day, IP address and device identifiers—to match authentication requirements to the risk of the request or action being performed. You can streamline access for low-risk activities—for example, accessing SaaS productivity applications like Office365—or step up security for higher risk transactions—such as requesting access to sensitive data like sales records.

Ultimately, strengthening security means minimizing your reliance on passwords. Modern MFA helps you move toward passwordless authentication by substituting more secure authentication options, such as biometrics and Yubikeys, in place of passwords. Reducing dependency on passwords is also the basis of Zero Trust. In a Zero Trust environment, users are recognized and authenticated using multiple dynamic factors, including the devices used to access applications and the context in which they’re attempting to access them.

Passwordless Authentication: Solving the Password Problem Once and for All

We all know the weaknesses of passwords, but bypassing passwords altogether may seem like a far-off fantasy. Actually, passwordless authentication is more attainable than you may realize.

The FIDO Alliance is on a mission to make passwordless MFA available to all users and the online services they interact with. By defining a common way for browsers and online services to implement MFA, the FIDO2 standard (aka simply FIDO) allows for the removal of knowledge (what you know) factors like passwords, KBA and one-time passcodes, which have proven vulnerable to attacks. Instead, it provides users with passwordless options—such as security keys, biometrics and other mobile-device-based solutions—to improve security.

Zero Trust as discussed previously is the first step. You can start by leveraging modern adaptive MFA policies to step down authentication in low-risk scenarios. For example, you could combine a username only (no password) with a lower friction method of authentication—such as a device-based biometric (a fingerprint) or a swipe—when a user is accessing non-sensitive resources in a typical manner (on a recognizable device and from a trusted network). 

You may still require passwords in some situations, but this is where FIDO2 comes in. Instead of passwords, FIDO2 leverages public key cryptography methods that require users to register a device and a domain (a corporate email) from which future access requests will originate. 

While eliminating passwords may seem out of reach, passwordless authentication is closer—and more achievable—than you may think.

Zero Trust: Establishing a New Perimeter while Minimizing Password Reliance

The concept of Zero Trust is to never trust, always verify. That may sound harsh but when an increasing number of users and resources are located outside the corporate network, you need a more reliable way to protect enterprise resources than passwords. 

In a Zero Trust environment, a user’s identity in addition to the device they’re using to access applications and the real-time context in which they’re attempting to access them are all used to verify the person is who they claim to be. 

Given the growing number of threats to your enterprise, you need to have confidence that every user is valid and authorized to access the resources they’re requesting.  Passwords alone aren’t enough—and are the most common vulnerability for security breaches. A Zero Trust approach makes workforce identity the new perimeter.

Effective Zero Trust security requires a central authentication authority. This authentication authority provides a single source of truth about each user, so you’re able to continuously and reliably verify a user’s identity before granting access to resources.

An identity-centered approach to Zero Trust makes workforce identity the new perimeter, so security can go where your people are. You gain a greater level of assurance that the right people are getting access to the right resources. At the same time, your users benefit from consistent, quick access to the resources they need—without having to create and remember dozens of passwords.

Not only is your workforce able to be more productive, your IT team is, too. By reducing the number of password reset requests, you effectively minimize helpdesk tickets. A centralized administration portal also allows application teams to onboard applications themselves. Your IT team is freed up from low-level tasks to focus on needle-moving transformation initiatives.

Quickly Onboard New Apps With Augmented Directory Capabilities

It can be difficult to justify to the CEO and other non-IT leaders why you need so much time to onboard a new application, give employees access and drive adoption of valuable information and technology assets. Disparate Microsoft Active Directory (AD) instances, legacy LDAP environments and the multiplication of other identity stores over time are often to blame. These disjointed data stores which contain duplicate and custom identity data create a number of challenges. 

But there’s a secret to speeding up application onboarding: a workforce authentication authority with modern directory capabilities that augments existing AD user profiles with flexible, custom attributes. In the absence of such an authentication authority with modern features like RESTful APIs and a flexible schema, application teams often resort to shadow identity to launch quickly. 

A workforce authentication authority gives developer teams the capabilities they need, while giving you the ability to establish a single source of truth. You gain a consolidated workforce user profile that you can leverage across all enterprise applications. 

The addition of bi-directional data synchronization capabilities make it possible to consolidate workforce credentials, application data and profiles into a single source of truth. The result is a central credential store that contains any and all on-premises and cloud directories used by your apps, including RDBMS, LDAP, CRM and many more.

Over time you’re able to simplify your architecture, gaining a single, scalable and secure user store that all of your applications can access via developer-friendly REST APIs and reducing your dependence on legacy data stores so you can decide whether to retire them at your own pace.

An authentication authority with a powerful, scalable directory that augments your existing AD environments can serve your enterprise needs both today and into the future. The addition of end-to-end security including encryption of data at rest, in transit and during backup and monitoring ensures valuable and highly targeted identity data remains protected—providing even more incentive to shut down insecure legacy identity stores and shrink your attack surface over time. 

Provide Convenient Access to Every App with Modern Access Management 

As part of the increasingly remote and mobile workforce, your employees need access to resources from any location at any time and from any device. Historically, your workforce only needed secure access to applications, but today’s employees and partners depend on APIs and data to get their job done. You need to secure all of your most valuable resources and ensure sensitive applications, APIs and data are protected as well. 

Modern access management starts with an authentication authority to federate identity and streamline access to every application—from on-premises to mobile to SaaS—with convenient single sign-on (SSO). You’re able to eliminate password sprawl and unnecessary friction to support increased productivity across your organization. 

A comprehensive policy engine ensures that those requesting access have the appropriate permissions, user context and device posture to access applications, down to the URL level. When you combine a centralized, comprehensive policy engine with fine-grained, dynamic authorization, you’re able to grant workforce users adaptive, secure access to all of your enterprise’s resources regardless of where those resources or users are located.

You can also mitigate risk and improve your security posture by centralizing policy and session management to a single source of truth, ensuring consistency throughout your organization. 

When you’re able to move away from legacy access management solutions to modern solutions, you’re better positioned to support the business and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

Three Ways You Reap the Benefits of Workforce Identity Transformation

Save Money, Time and Resources

When you’re still relying on legacy systems, you must spend an inordinate amount of energy and resources on low-value work. The time spent supporting out-of-date tools, resolving password reset requests and onboarding applications can add up quickly. All of this steals your attention away from the strategic initiatives that can drive your organization forward.

Workforce identity transformation centered on Zero Trust principles frees up money, time and resources by providing features like:

• Centralized authentication services, with an authentication authority for any use case
• Industry standard support, limiting the need for customization
• Self-service options for password resets
• Delegated administration to application teams with a central portal to onboard apps
• Fewer systems for teams to maintain
• Support for DevOps, automation, and flexible deployment options, including cloud

Maximize Productivity

Requiring workforce users to create and remember multiple login credentials to get access is hurting their productivity and yours. When you transform workforce identity and transition to an identity-centric Zero Trust model, you’re able to give your workforce users streamlined access to the right digital tools at the right time, regardless of where they’re located. 

Workforce identity transformation helps your entire organization be more efficient and use time wisely by providing:

• One-click access to every resource, across any application, any cloud and any directory
• Self-service portals so employees can reset their own passwords
• Self-service application integration templates to onboard applications to identity management
• Adaptive authentication using context and intelligence to trigger MFA for only high-risk activities

Strengthen Security

Digital transformation creates new opportunities for your enterprise, but it also creates new threats. A Zero Trust approach to security ensures you’re protected while providing convenient access to an increasingly mobile and diverse workforce. It also gives you the solid foundation to keep up with growing demands so you can minimize the incidence of shadow IT and siloed approaches that expose security risks.

Workforce identity transformation helps you strengthen your security posture by providing:

• A foundation for Zero Trust, which reduces risk and shrinks your attack surface
• Adaptive MFA that dynamically assesses risk and responds accordingly
• Secure passwordless login capabilities that reduce your reliance on passwords
• Continuous risk score evaluation and fine-grained dynamic authorization