{"id":55869,"date":"2021-10-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=55869"},"modified":"2022-11-30T15:04:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T20:04:07","slug":"how-sso-improves-security-and-compliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/how-sso-improves-security-and-compliance","title":{"rendered":"How SSO Prevents Security Threats and Improves Compliance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! In honor of the theme \u2014 Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart \u2014 we\u2019re doing our part by educating IT teams and organizations on protecting themselves. Throughout October, the JumpCloud blog will focus on top cybersecurity issues, from IT admin best practices to CISO responsibilities. Tune back in throughout the month for new cybersecurity content or <\/em>check out our archive of existing security articles<\/em><\/a> for cybersecurity insights written specifically for the IT professional.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to IBM<\/a>, the average cost of a data breach is $4.24 million per incident. They also identified a few trends: remote work has a negative impact on this, healthcare breach costs have surged, compromised credentials are one of the most common causes of breaches, and modern approaches to cybersecurity reduce overall costs. In today\u2019s modern IT environment, proper cybersecurity practices are essential for keeping users, devices, and information safe. What\u2019s more, modern single sign-on (SSO) solutions<\/a> are popular safeguards to put in place to improve cybersecurity and compliance simultaneously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheer number of tasks we do online grows every year as we create and discover new  opportunities to digitize our world. This is true within the workplace as well, but as we find more processes to automate using cloud-based technology and new apps to improve efficiency, we add more risk to the organization. Each tool added to the technology toolbelt, each interface users enter a password on, each app that we connect to via different networks and devices \u2014 they all add to our existing attack surface and present bad actors with seemingly unlimited avenues to cause harm if left unchecked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where a secure, single sign-on<\/a> solution comes into play \u2014 using one reinforced set of credentials to access all of these tools and resources provides quite a few different benefits to modern organizations. One major SSO benefit<\/a> is that reduces the number of attack vectors your organization has, and SSO layered with multi-factor authentication (MFA)<\/a> creates useful security and compliance controls. So, how do you find a solution that provides these capabilities and more? The answer is simple \u2014 look for an integrated, holistic directory platform that focuses on security and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implementing an integrated directory solution<\/a> provides organizations with a single source of truth for identity management and user authentication while providing built-in SSO and MFA<\/a> capabilities and more. This is an important step to take to mitigate the risk that is inherent when users have to create and input different credentials across a wide variety of tools and resources, thus creating many unnecessary new attack vectors ripe for the taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a Comprehensive SSO Solution Includes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, single sign-on solutions were reduced to web applications only, with specific, limited features to support security controls around this approach. This is no longer the case; a comprehensive SSO solution can now include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n