What is enterprise password management?
Enterprise password management refers to the secure storage and centralized administration of critical enterprise passwords of shared accounts, enforcing password policies, and also managing other sensitive information such as certificates, licenses, credit cards, and many more. An enterprise password manager serves as a secure vault to store these sensitive identities within an encrypted repository.
Defining the employee lifecycle in password management
As cybersecurity threats evolve, organizations must continually adjust their security protocols. It's important to grant new hires immediate access to certain systems, while others may not be essential until later. Similarly, upon an employee's departure, their access to business apps and data must be immediately revoked.
A reliable password management system not only protects the organization and its employees but also cultivates a secure environment, fosters collaboration, and enhances overall productivity.
Employee lifecycle stages
Passwords are critical for every part of a business, and especially so during three main stages in an employee's time at the company:
Onboarding
Employee password management is a critical aspect of cybersecurity that begins during the onboarding process and extends throughout an employee's career. Understanding a new hire's experience with password managers is an important step in establishing secure access to company applications and software.
To mitigate cybersecurity risks and safeguard sensitive business data, many organizations incorporate password managers into the onboarding process. These tools provide employees with a secure means to store and access essential login credentials.
While single sign-on (SSO) simplifies access to core enterprise systems, its coverage may not extend to employee-specific or team-based applications. In such cases, the need for efficient access can lead to the use of less secure methods for sharing credentials, such as sticky notes, email, or shared documents. The adoption of password managers by employees bridges this gap by enabling the secure and controlled sharing of login credentials within teams.
Succession
As businesses grow, their technology needs to adapt and expand as well. This includes how they manage passwords. Growth can come in many forms, such as adding more employees, creating new teams or departments, or even merging with another company.
In these situations, employees may change roles within the company, requiring adjustments to their access to software and data. A password management system can streamline this process. With just a few clicks, easily move transitioning employees to new groups with access to the appropriate shared folders or update their permissions based on their new role.
Offboarding
When employees depart from a company, either by choice or termination, there are steps to take to ensure a smooth transition. These steps include finalizing or transferring any ongoing projects and removing the departing employee's access to company systems.
Some companies, lacking dedicated password management tools, might resort to manually changing the passwords to all shared logins on the employee's last day. This could involve updating a list of login details in a spreadsheet and sharing it with new team members who require access. This method, however, poses security risks. Unencrypted spreadsheets and shared documents are not secure and lack the ability to precisely control who can access each password.
Security threats can originate not only from external actors, but also from former employees who maintain access to accounts after their departure. Implementing a streamlined offboarding process can mitigate these risks by minimizing the likelihood of account misuse, hacking, or breaches.
Here are just a couple of real-world examples:
- Malicious actors targeted a privileged account belonging to an admin who left the company several months earlier. The company had chosen to keep the account active as it was utilized for multiple services, however, this decision led to a breach in their security.
- A ransomware group gained access to Colonial Pipeline by exploiting an inactive VPN account, causing the shutdown of the gas pipeline for five days and impacting 10,000 gas stations. The account had a compromised password leaked on the dark web. Approximately half of the breaches that do not involve errors or misuse are linked to compromised credentials, with inactive accounts being more susceptible to compromised or reused passwords.
How Zoho Vault makes workforce management easy while boosting security
While the primary function of a password manager like Zoho Vault is to secure passwords and other sensitive data, password managers also offer other features that improve onboarding and offboarding processes and boost overall security.
Simplify HR processes
The human resources team is often tasked with onboarding and offboarding employees, and this includes providing new hires with access to the company's systems and deactivating accounts when employees leave. However, research suggests that as many as 83% of former employees continue accessing their accounts after leaving their employer. With a password manager, HR can immediately provide employees with the access they need, setting new hires up for success on their first day and ensuring that offboarding is not an afterthought.
Save on IT resources
When employees use a password manager, they no longer need to memorize any of their passwords, except for the master one. This eliminates the need to contact the help desk for password resets and other related issues. Additionally, a password manager simplifies the onboarding process and reduces the time IT dedicates to password management.
Streamline identity management and secure logins with a unified solution:
A password manager like Zoho Vault offers both password management and single sign-on (SSO). It enhances security for business accounts by detecting and addressing reused, weak, or compromised passwords. It also simplifies the management of shared accounts and improves IT monitoring by offering insight into used applications and services.
Manage third-party access
Securely share passwords with third-party vendors, consultants, freelancers, or temporary workers with time restrictions. Track all accounts accessed by outside users and stay compliant with real-time security audits. This simplifies access management and reduces security risks.
Implement password best practices
A password manager helps employees create, store, and manage passwords, making it simple to improve their password hygiene and follow best security practices. Around 88% of security breaches result from the use of stolen credentials. A password manager mitigates this risk, adding a robust defense layer. Additionally, many password managers offer extra features such as monitoring for reused passwords and compromised credentials on the dark web, notifying employees when they’re at risk.
Why choose Zoho Vault?
Store, share, and manage sensitive passwords from a secure place.
Password security scores and dark web monitoring to get real-time insights into password strength and identify potential breaches.
Multi-factor authentication for the Zoho Vault account can be used for an extra layer of security for all of the user's MFA-compatible accounts.
Real-time audits and detailed reports offer complete insights into all sensitive actions in your vault.
Dark web monitoring alerts employees when their passwords and other personal information are compromised.
