Single Sign-On

What is single sign-on (SSO)?

Single sign-on combines multiple different application login screens into just one. This means that a user only needs to enter in their secure credentials (username, password, etc.) once on a single page to be granted access to their SaaS applications.

What are the advantages of SSO?

Firstly, SSO is much more convenient and simpler or users. It is also more secure which may seem strange. Below are some following reasons:

Stronger Passwords

As users only need to remember one password, SSO encourages them to create and remember a more complex, stronger password which is less likely to get compromised. However, this relies solely on the user.

No repeated passwords

When you have to remember several different passwords for different apps and services, users tend to re-use passwords across these services. This is also known as ‘Password Fatigue’. Obviously, this approach poses a huge security risk. If all your apps and services share a password, if that password is compromised, attackers will be granted access to everything that uses that password. SSO aims to solve this by reducing this all down to one, secure password.

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) refers to the practice of using more than one identity factor to authenticate a user. You may have encountered this before. As well as entering in your username and password, you may also be asked to enter a PIN sent to your email address or mobile number. Access to these other services acts as a second factor that establishes that a user is who they say they are.

MFA is much more secure than relying on a password alone. Single sign-on goes hand in hand with multi-factor authentication and enables a much more secure experience for users.