Best Practices

  • 9 min read

6 Single-Sign On (SSO) Best Practices in 2024

Rohit Rao

21st December, 2023

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As an IT manager, you play a pivotal role in ensuring the security and efficiency of your organization's operations. One of the key tools at your disposal is single sign-on, or SSO, a robust authentication method. It significantly enhances your IT team's capabilities while safeguarding sensitive data. Thus, implementing SSO best practices will enhance security.

SSO is an intelligent authentication system that allows users to access multiple applications and services with a single set of login authentication credentials, typically a username and password. 

Instead of juggling numerous usernames and passwords for various tools, individual users can log in once, and SSO takes care of the rest. It seamlessly grants access to authorized resources and eliminates users' password fatigue. Therefore, implementing sso best practices acts as a digital gatekeeper, simplifying access management for both your IT team and end-users.

For instance, when a user attempts to access an application (service provider) for the initial time, the service provider initiates a redirection to the SSO identity provider (IdP) for authentication. At this point, the user provides their username and password, and the IdP then verifies these credentials.

Why is SSO Important for Your Organization?

Now, let's discuss the various importance of SSO in your organization.

Enhanced Security: SSO strengthens your organization's security by reducing the risk of password-related vulnerabilities. With fewer passwords to remember, employees are less likely to resort to weak or easily guessable passwords, minimizing security risks like data breaches due to compromised credentials.

Centralized Access Control: SSO provides a centralized control point for managing user access. This not only simplifies your workload but also reduces the potential for errors and unauthorized access.

Improved Productivity: Your IT team's efficiency can be greatly improved with SSO. By eliminating the need for users to remember multiple login credentials, you reduce the number of password-related support requests. This frees up your IT team to focus on more strategic tasks rather than routine password resets.

Streamlined Onboarding and Offboarding: When new employees join or when someone leaves the organization, managing their access to various systems can be time-consuming. SSO simplifies this process by granting access to necessary tools for new hires and instantly revoking access for departing employees, ensuring data security and compliance.

User Experience: SSO enhances the user experience by eliminating the frustration of remembering and entering multiple passwords. This can lead to higher user satisfaction and increased adoption of organizational tools and systems.

Compliance and Audit Trails: SSO solutions often come with robust audit trail capabilities. This is invaluable for ensuring compliance with industry regulations and internal security policies. You can track and monitor user access and identify any suspicious activities or unauthorized access attempts.

Understand your SSO standards

When it comes to SSO standards, there are various shared authorization and authentication schemes. When one uses the term “standard,” it is typically used without a precise meaning.

While some may sound highly similar, they are quite different. Let us see some:

• OpenID - OpenID is a standard for maintaining a digital identity via an identity provider. It helps in verifying the identity of other websites called Service Providers. OpenID has been replaced by a newer version called OpenID Connect (OIDC).

• SAML - This language is based on XML data format and protocol for user authentication. SAML implementation has been around for a long time, and it is far more common for bigger enterprises. Highly modern companies, like Google, still work with SAML-based SSO workflow.

• OpenID Connect (OIDC) - It is the fairly latest standard authentication protocol and data format. It is the better version of OpenID. It follows a design similar to Facebook Connect and has been taken up by Google and other big providers.

However, implementing SSO requires careful planning, and best practices to enhance and maintain your security. In this article, we will discuss some of the SSO best practices for implementing effective SSO in your organization.

Top 6 Single Sign-On (SSO) Best Practices

Here are the top 6 SSO best practices for optimal results.

1. Mandate strong authentication methods like multi-factor authentication

One essential SSO best practice you should consider is mandating robust authentication methods, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), when implementing single sign-on (SSO) in your organization.

One of the primary reasons for mandating MFA in SSO is the significant boost it provides to security. With traditional password-based authentication, a stolen password could potentially grant unauthorized access to multiple systems.

However, MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring users to go through a two-step verification process for authentication, such as something they know (a strong password) and something they have (a smartphone or hardware token). 

This approach to authentication makes it considerably more difficult for cybercriminals to gain access, as they would need to compromise multiple factors simultaneously.

Moreover, MFA significantly reduces the risk of malicious users' access to sensitive systems and data. This means fewer security risks to worry about. When only a password is required, the chances of someone guessing or cracking it increase. 

But with MFA, even if a password login is compromised, the additional layer of authentication acts as a robust defense, ensuring that only authorized individuals gain access.

Implementing MFA in SSO can significantly reduce the burden of password-related support requests. Users are less likely to forget passwords or get locked out, leading to a smoother IT operation.

2. Enforcing role-based access control

You might face the formidable challenge of safeguarding sensitive company data and ensuring only authorized individuals can access it. This is where role-based access control (RBAC), one of the prominent SSO best practice, integrated with single sign-on (SSO) emerges as a crucial best practice. 

One of the primary benefits of RBAC within SSO is the fortified security it offers. You can assign specific roles to users, granting them access only to the resources necessary for their job functions. This minimizes the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access, as employees can't stray into areas of the system where they don't belong.

Implementing RBAC through SSO simplifies user management for IT teams. With a centralized control panel, you can efficiently allocate and revoke permissions as needed. This reduces the administrative burden, ensuring user access aligns with their current roles, all from one place.

In addition, your team often receives many help desk requests related to access issues. Enforcing RBAC with SSO significantly reduces these requests. Users can access all necessary resources with a single login, minimizing the chances of forgotten passwords or login problems.

3. Centralize your identity management

As an IT manager, you are responsible for ensuring that employees can access the systems and applications they need securely and efficiently. One way to make this process smoother is by centralizing identity management, an SSO best practice.

Centralized identity management means bringing all user accounts and access controls under one umbrella. Instead of having separate logins and passwords for various applications, SSO enables users to sign in once and gain access to multiple systems seamlessly. 

By centralizing identity management, you can enforce more robust password management and implement multi-factor authentication more effectively. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.

Centralizing identity management isn't just about convenience; it can also save money. Managing fewer accounts and passwords means fewer support requests related to forgotten passwords and access issues. Your IT team can allocate the resources more efficiently, leading to cost savings in the long run.

Further, centralized identity management simplifies compliance efforts by providing a unified view of user access across all systems. You can easily generate reports and audit logs to demonstrate compliance with industry regulations and internal policies.

4. Consider real-time monitoring and logging

Real-time monitoring and logging offer you a comprehensive view of user activities within your SSO system. It means that you can see who is accessing what, when, and from where in real-time. This level of visibility empowers your team to swiftly detect and respond to any suspicious or unauthorized activities, enhancing the overall security posture of your organization.

By tracking user actions and access patterns, your team can identify trends and anomalies. This information is invaluable for proactively addressing potential security threats, such as unauthorized access attempts or unusual login patterns before they escalate into major issues.

Another crucial aspect to consider is the troubleshooting capability that real-time monitoring and logging provides. When issues arise, you can quickly pinpoint the root causes by examining detailed logs of user interactions. This accelerates problem resolution, minimizing downtime and reducing the impact on the organization's productivity.

5. Achieve compliance by regularly auditing and updating

Staying compliant with industry regulations and security standards is non-negotiable. Regular security audits of your SSO system ensure that it continues to meet the regulatory requirements, making it one of the SSO best practice. Compliance isn't just about ticking boxes; it's about safeguarding your organization against data breaches, legal issues, and reputation damage.

As technology evolves, so do security threats. New vulnerabilities emerge, and cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated. Regular updates to your SSO system help patch vulnerabilities and keep it resilient against evolving threats. This proactive approach prevents security breaches before they even happen.

Moreover, an up-to-date SSO system is easier to troubleshoot. When issues arise, your IT team can identify and resolve them quickly, minimizing downtime and productivity losses. Also, a well-maintained SSO system provides a seamless user experience.

6. Choose the suitable SSO solution for your organization

In the realm of SSO best practices for your organization, it's essential to recognize that not all SSO solutions offer the same benefits. Your choice of SSO solution should align closely with your organization's unique characteristics, whether it's size, complexity, or specific operational needs.

To optimize your SSO implementation process, consider the following factors:

• Tailored Solutions for Your Needs: Depending on your use cases and requirements, you may find a federated SSO solution ideal. This solution allows for seamless integration with multiple identity providers and supports various protocols like SAML, OAuth, or OpenID Connect. Also, customizing your SSO to suit your specific needs is crucial.

• Compatibility and Scalability: Your SSO solution should seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure and applications. Ensure it's compatible with your technology stack and has the scalability to grow with your organization. 

• Reliability and Uptime: Downtime can be costly. Choose an SSO solution known for its reliability and uptime. Frequent disruptions can disrupt operations and erode trust among users and partners.

• Cost and Maintenance: Factor in the total cost of ownership when selecting an SSO solution. Beyond the initial implementation costs, consider ongoing maintenance, updates, and support fees. Striking a balance between cost and functionality is essential.

Are you wondering if there is any SSO solution that can meet your needs? Don't worry; Zluri is an all-in-one solution that can meet your requirements for smooth IT operations and enhance your overall security posture. Let's see how.

Leverage Zluri to Meet Your SSO Needs

Zluri offers a comprehensive SaaS management platform that handles user identities and access policies seamlessly. It integrates with various SSO tools like Okta that excel in enforcing authentication and authorization controls while diligently monitoring user activity and compliance. Zluri leverages this data to authenticate employees' identities during onboarding and offboarding.

• Effortless onboarding with SSO integration

Imagine a scenario where a new team member joins your organization. With Zluri's SSO integration capability, their information effortlessly integrates with the digital identity. This powerful feature streamlines the provisioning process, enabling your IT admin to swiftly verify their identity and allocate precise access levels for applications and data.

Beyond this automated provisioning, the added layer of security acts as a shield against identity theft and serves as a safeguard for your critical data, protecting it from potential security breaches.

• Seamless deprovisioning with Zluri

Zluri offers a seamless deprovisioning process that ensures secure and efficient user management. With just a single click, Zluri simplifies the deprovisioning workflow into the following four essential steps:

Revoke Device Access:Zluri immediately disables user authentication across all devices. This crucial step is instrumental in maintaining control over user access and security.

Data Backup: Zluri takes measures to safeguard user data. This precaution ensures that sensitive data remains protected even when access privileges are revoked, offering peace of mind from an administrator's perspective.

Revoke User License: Zluri then returns to the application to efficiently remove the user account. Since the data has already been successfully transferred or backed up in the previous step, this action can be completed without any concerns about data loss. 

Remove SSO Integration: Finally, Zluri ensures a thorough deprovisioning process by removing the SSO integration. This action consolidates the termination of the user's access, enhancing security for a comprehensive user management approach.

• Streamline your SaaS management

Zluri provides an efficient way to oversee SaaS applications across your organization. With a centralized dashboard, you can effortlessly track the SaaS being used, who is using it, and whether they are up to date. By maintaining an up-to-date SaaS inventory, you can minimize vulnerabilities and patch security holes swiftly.

• Identify security risks

Zluri's monitoring capabilities extend to identifying security risks. It can identify critical SaaS applications and users, and notify you promptly, allowing your IT team to take action. This early warning system prevents potential security breaches, keeping your data and systems safe.

• Ensure data security and compliance

Zluri helps you take control of your data and keep it safe. You can see who's been accessing your files, search for specific items, and take action to protect your information. 

Zluri offers security and compliance information, including events, shared data, compliance and security probes for each SaaS application. The motive is to work towards meeting every compliance requirement while helping you achieve compliance as well.

It helps you stay secure and meet required compliance standards like ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and more. These standards help protect against threats from both inside and outside your organization.

• Comprehensive audits and reporting

Furthermore, Zluri conducts routine audits and generates comprehensive reports that provide insights into employee and app activity. These reports cover everything from login and logout events to group creation, department management, and changes to user profiles.

If your goal is to streamline access management, enhance security, and boost your team's productivity, Zluri is the solution. Don't delay – schedule a demo today and experience the future of simplified and secure access management with Zluri!

FAQs

What is the strategy of SSO?

Single-sign-on (SSO) is a sophisticated identity solution that enables seamless access to multiple applications without the need for repetitive credential input. Enterprises commonly embrace SSO implementations as a pivotal component of their security strategy, safeguarding access to critical resources efficiently and conveniently.

What are the three benefits of SSO?

SSO authentication offers numerous advantages to IT administrators and their teams. These benefits encompass enhanced user compliance with password policies, a substantial reduction in user-initiated password reset requests, and heightened administrative capabilities for monitoring and managing application access.

What are the differences between MFA and SSO?

The primary distinction between multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single-sign-on (SSO) lies in their core emphasis. MFA focuses primarily on bolstering security, whereas SSO prioritizes enhancing user convenience. With MFA, users must furnish two-factor authentication, whereas SSO streamlines access by necessitating just a single set of user credentials.

What is the difference between Federated Identity Management and SSO?

The fundamental distinction between single-sign-on (SSO) and federated identity management (FIM) lies in their scope. SSO is crafted to authenticate a single set of credentials across multiple systems within a single organization, whereas federated identity management systems provide unified access to many applications across different enterprises.

About the author

Rohit Rao

Rohit works in the Community and Marketing Team of Zluri and is a strong advocate of community led growth.