As employees use more and more cloud apps, they also need to keep track of more and more passwords. Keeping track of so many sets of credentials can often lead to poor security practices, such as weak or reused passwords. An enterprise password manager helps to ensure that security policies are adhered to and users can easily access the apps they need with ease.
But there’s more to cyber security than just picking good passwords. To ensure security policies are followed while making things as easy and efficient as possible for employees, it’s important that your enterprise password manager has all the features you require. Here are ten things to look out for when deciding which password manager is right for your business.
1. Zero Sign-in to the Password Manager
The purpose of a password manager is to make things easier for employees, not to give them yet another password to remember. An enterprise password manager that integrates with your corporate directory means no sign-in is required, making the user experience frictionless and more efficient.
2. Zero User Interface Option
For widespread enterprise use, choose an enterprise password manager that can be configured to run silently in the background providing users with access to the passwords they need at the time when they need them. This means no training is required, which in turn means significantly higher adoption and greater security benefits.
3. Password Policy Enforcement and Synchronisation
Use a password manager that can generate strong, random passwords that comply with your policies and automate password updates for external (third-party) applications. It’s also important that the solution can automate synchronisation of newly updated passwords to ensure that where passwords are shared, all permitted users and groups have immediate access to the updated credentials.
4. Zero Knowledge Encryption
Also known as client-side encryption, Zero Knowledge Encryption means that no-one outside your organisation can access your secured data – not even the vendor. This is crucial in giving your organisation complete control and eliminating a potential security risk.
5. Provides Single Sign-On for Apps
Allowing easy, one-click access to apps completes the journey towards an unobtrusive user experience, making the need for copying and pasting of credentials from the password manager largely unnecessary.
6. Multiple Credentials per App
Frequently, employees may need to access multiple accounts for the same application. A password manager that facilitates easy switching between identities is essential to maintain an efficient workflow.
7. Sharing of Credentials with Granular Permissions
When accounts and services need to be shared, its important to ensure that a high level of security is still maintained. By allowing the secure sharing of credentials with specific permissions attached (i.e. read, write, update, view, allow onward share etc.) tighter controls and governance can be maintained without compromising on efficiency or user experience.
8. Full Audit Trail and Integration with SIEM Solutions
Often, data breaches can take months or even years to detect. Providing a full audit trail and integrating with real-time monitoring systems is critical for effective governance and monitoring whilst underpinning compliance obligations.
9. Optional Ability to Discover Applications and Learn Credentials
Password managers that can discover the apps being used by employees and learn the credentials for these, if required, expedites time-to-value by reducing setup effort whilst detecting Shadow-IT.
10. Policy Based Step-up Authentication
For increased security the ability to prompt users for multi-factor or step-up authentication before being given access to specific passwords can be critical for security and compliance.
Find out more about how to move to passwordless authentication.
