Do most businesses know that employee password behavior is a problem? Yes. Do those same businesses feel confident quantifying that problem and the risks it poses? In short, no. Passwords remain the most commonly used form of authentication – despite multi-factor authentication, biometrics, and single sign-on – but they also remain extremely elusive for IT teams to take control of and secure.
Forrester just released a new analyst report that acknowledges the severity of the password problem as exacerbated by poor password hygiene. Even with new forms of authentication and increased awareness of best security practices, individuals continue to use weak passwords that put businesses at risk.
The report, titled “Best Practices: Selecting, Deploying, And Managing Enterprise Password Managers,” recognizes this ‘password chaos’ and the reasons for it. The report notes the high volume of accounts that employees need to manage, plus the reality that SSO and IDaaS solutions simply do not cover all passwords required in an employee's workday.
The Forrester analysts go on to provide guidance for businesses on how to quantify the risks that passwords present. With an accurate picture of the problem, IT teams can justify the investment in an enterprise password manager (EPM) as part of their security stack. In the report, you can expect to learn:
- How businesses can mitigate poor password behavior
- How to quantify password costs to justify investment in an EPM solution
- What to look for in an EPM solution, including Forrester's guidance for selecting a vendor
- How EPM complements other authentication tech such as SSO and PAM
