Is single sign on beneficial to you, the user? How does it work? Single sign on, also known as SSO is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID and password to any of several related, yet independent, software systems. True single sign-on allows the user to log in once and access services without re-entering authentication factors. There is also same sign on, which is completely different from SSO. SSO allows you to use one username and one password for multiple websites, but is it a good thing?

Is Single Sign On Beneficial?

Can you imagine not having to remember hundreds of passwords? How about when it comes time to change those hundreds of passwords!! Instead of requiring in-office and remote workers to track separate accounts for Office 365, Slack, Trello, and other cloud apps your company uses, you can give them a single set of credentials and manage what they have access to remotely. All employees have to do is come enter their designated username and password, and they’re all set for the day. But is it secure? The answer is yes! If set up correctly, SSO can be very beneficial to the user.

Is SSO Secure?

Actually, there are quite a few ways to set up a small-business Single Sign On solution, but most of them focus on removing login information from your servers. Usually, you’ll provide your employees’ logins to an SSO provider (sometimes referred to as an Identity-as-a-Service provider) and each employee will receive a single login paired with a secondary authentication — like a biometric scan like iOS’s FaceID, or a one-time PIN (OTP) code sent to a personal device.

Every time one of your employees visits a cloud platform, such as Office 365 or Google Workspace, the SSO provider will verify the user’s identity and the connection’s security. If anything goes wrong, your IT provider will be notified.

Should your network or any of the devices connected to it gets compromised, hackers would find nothing but logins to your SSO accounts, which are meaningless without fingerprints or mobile devices.

How Do We Implement SSO?

Frist, get with your IT Department. Make sure they are knowledgeable and responsive, along with available to review suspicious threats. You need to be careful with SSO but in the end, it could definitely be worth it.