Customer Spotlight: Improving Password Security at Yelp

Yelp connects people with great local businesses. Yelp users have contributed over 200 million reviews of almost every type of local business, from restaurants, boutiques and salons to dentists, mechanics, plumbers and more. Their business revolves around the connections made between the consumers who read and write reviews and the local businesses that they describe.   Yelp gives its employees the flexibility to use the applications or tools required to be as productive as possible. With that flexibility, however, came the risks of Shadow IT, which is the use of software without explicit IT department approval. In order to allow their employees to maintain flexibility with application use, the IT department needed to ensure that security remained a priority and login information for applications or tools outside the IT department’s purview was still being kept secure.  Simultaneously, Yelp noticed that their employees were keeping track of their passwords using a variety of insecure methods. Yelp required an enterprise-ready password management solution that would allow them to promote strong password hygiene among their employees, while having administrative insight and control to ensure security best practices were in place.   Yelp chose LastPass as their password management solution as LastPass offered Enterprise-ready features, while being easy to use for their employees. With LastPass, the IT department could provide their employees the flexibility to use the applications or tools they required, while ensuring that passwords to all applications and tools remained secure.  From the IT administrator perspective, the LastPass security policies provided comprehensive custom configuration for granular control into Yelp’s password health.

“The security policies such as ‘preventing sharing outside of the organization’ and ‘master password length’ gave us needed visibility and control”, shared Bryan Shields, Engineering Manager, Application and Client Platform Engineering, Yelp 

In addition, advanced features such as directory integrations made provisioning or deprovisioning of employees simple.   For employees, LastPass promotes strong password hygiene through its ability to store, generate, and share passwords securely. Password sharing has been very helpful for teams where multiple members must login to the same account. With LastPass, the IT department can maintain visibility over shared accounts through audits to ensure that they remain a more secure company overall. 

“LastPass allows Yelp to protect the credentials of all applications or tools, regardless if they are under IT management or not. The LastPass administrative features provide Yelp visibility and control over the password hygiene of our business, while being easy to use and reliable.” – Bryan Shields

 Results: Yelp provided LastPass accounts for all employees across their entire organization. By promoting LastPass through events such as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month as well as building LastPass into their new hire onboarding process, Yelp has received positive feedback and strong adoption from their employees.  In addition, with LastPass, the IT department knows that their employees have a secure method for managing the passwords outside the control of the IT team. This provides peace of mind for the organization against potential data breaches, while allowing employees the flexibility to use the applications or tools their job requires.   Finally, with the support of their Customer Success Manager, Yelp receives insight into the product roadmap as well as opportunities to provide LastPass feedback through events, such as the Customer Advisory Board.  Learn more about LastPass business solutions by visiting: https://www.lastpass.com/business-solutions