Last year, 90% of businesses suffered identity-related incidents – attacks that take an average of 7 months (over 210 days!) to identify.
You’ve heard about the move to authentication beyond passwords for a while now. Originally pitched as a luxury, passwordless authentication is quickly becoming a fundamental necessity to avoid being the “low-hanging fruit” cyber bad actors live for.
Security revolves around identity. Two primary ways attackers access an organization are password-related: stolen credentials and phishing. One effective strategy to safeguard against these predominant attack vectors is implementing passwordless authentication, aligning it with the broader principles of a Zero Trust philosophy.
How does passwordless authentication protect against these types of attacks?
- Enhanced User Authentication: Passwordless solutions use authentication methods in the categories of “something the user is” (a physical characteristic) and “something the user has” (a phone or FIDO token) instead of “something they know” (a password).
- Reduced Risk of Phishing: Passwordless authentication helps reduce phishing primarily because it eliminates the need for users to enter their passwords, a common target in phishing attacks. In a typical phishing scenario, attackers trick users into revealing their passwords by mimicking legitimate login prompts. However, with passwordless authentication, the authentication process doesn’t involve passwords at all.
Removing passwords also eliminates the most straightforward avenue for phishers to exploit. Even if cyber attackers deceive users into clicking harmful links or visiting counterfeit websites (as in Man-in-the-Middle attacks), the lack of a password in the authentication process leaves them with no actionable data, greatly reducing the effectiveness of phishing attempts.
- Protection Against Credential Stuffing Attacks: Credential stuffing is a type of cyber-attack where attackers use stolen account credentials (usernames and passwords) from a data breach to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on other platforms. This method relies on the common practice of users reusing the same password across multiple accounts.
In a passwordless system there is no corresponding password to test. As a result, passwordless authentication significantly mitigates the risk associated with large-scale automated login attempts using stolen credentials, enhancing the organization’s overall security posture.
- Resistant to Brute Force Attacks: Passwordless authentication is highly effective in preventing brute force attacks, in which hackers systematically try numerous password combinations to gain unauthorized access to an account. Going passwordless effectively neutralizes this method of attack by replacing passwords with a combination of biometrics, time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs), and security tokens.
How does passwordless authentication increase operational efficiency?
- Improved User Experience: Passwordless systems typically involve more straightforward and more convenient methods of authentication. This ease of use enhances the user experience by eliminating the need to remember and type in complex passwords.
- Reduced Administrative Costs: One of the most common issues IT support teams face is handling password-related queries, such as resets and account lockouts. With passwordless systems, these issues are significantly reduced if not eliminated. This reduction in password-related support requests leads to a lighter workload for help desk teams, allowing them to focus on more business-critical tasks.
- Compliance with Regulations: Compliance frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, NIST, CMMC, and others have strict regulations on user access management and controlling who has access to what information. Passwordless authentication ensures a more accurate and secure way of managing user access, as it is harder to forge or share biometric data or physical tokens.
Passwordless Authentication, at its core, drastically reduces or eliminates the types of attacks that leave legacy, password-based MFA systems vulnerable. But that’s only the start of what it can do to improve the organization-wide security posture.
Whether you’re just getting started on your passwordless authentication journey or trying to find the right partner to get you there – SOFTwarfare is here to help! Our team of Identity Security experts is ready to assess your organization's environment and assist you in developing the most effective strategy for modernizing your identity management practices.
