Although single sign-on (SSO) is more commonly recognized for the easy application access it provides, it is crucial for securing business environments in today’s cloud-driven and hybrid work world. Often straightforward attacks aimed at unprotected or, more often, weakly protected web applications grant cybercriminals an easy foothold into an organization's environment and potentially open the door to more extensive breaches. Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report highlights that at 77%, weak or stolen credentials remain one of the top causes of data breaches.
SSO secured with MFA helps mitigate risks and defend against attacks by allowing users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials. Not only does this enhance security through centralized management, but it also improves the user experience by eliminating password fatigue and simplifies IT administration by consolidating user provisioning and access control. SSO is now more crucial than ever for organizations looking to streamline access and protect sensitive data.
In this blog, we'll explore how SSO implementation has been steadily transforming accessibility and security across different industries.
In the financial services industry, security and efficiency are paramount. Financial institutions often rely on multiple applications to manage customer data, conduct transactions, and ensure compliance with regulations. Using SSO, financial institutions can streamline access to these critical systems while enhancing security.
To provide an SSO use case in the financial sector, a bank may use SSO to allow employees to access a variety of internal tools—such as customer relationship management software, transaction monitoring systems, and financial planning applications—all with a single set of credentials. Implementing MFA alongside SSO ensures that only authorized personnel can access sensitive customer data, reducing the risk of data breaches.
Additionally, SSO implementation eliminates the need for employees to remember multiple passwords, reducing password fatigue and increasing productivity. With centralized user management, the bank can easily onboard or offboard employees, ensuring that access is granted or revoked immediately upon changes to their employment status, which is essential for compliance and security. This approach not only improves security and user experience but also simplifies IT management, making it easier for the bank to monitor access and respond to potential security threats in real time.
The healthcare sector values the security of patient data while providing efficient access to critical systems. Healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and administrative staff, need access to a wide range of applications like electronic protected health information (ePHI) , medical billing systems, and communication tools. SSO simplifies access by allowing them to log in once and seamlessly access multiple applications with a single set of credentials.
For example, a hospital may use SSO to enable physicians and nurses to access patient records and lab results with just one login. When staff need to remember multiple usernames and passwords it leads to password fatigue and security vulnerabilities, but SSO alleviates this problem. By integrating MFA with SSO, the hospital ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive patient information, enhancing security and compliance with essential healthcare regulations like HIPAA.
SSO and centralized user management also help healthcare IT teams manage user access more efficiently, especially while onboarding or offboarding employees. When a new healthcare provider joins the hospital or when staff leave, access to all critical systems can be quickly granted or revoked from a centralized console, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Healthcare professionals can now enjoy a better login experience, allowing them to focus more on patient care and less on managing credentials.
In educational institutions, students, faculty, and staff often need access to a variety of systems, including learning management systems, grade portals, communication tools, and administrative platforms. SSO simplifies the login process by allowing users to access all these applications with a single set of credentials.
An example of SSO in the education industry is a university implementing SSO to allow students to access their course materials, grades, and email accounts with a single login. The university can also enable SSO for faculty and staff to access academic records, communication tools, and administrative software using one set of credentials. This eliminates the need for students and staff to remember multiple usernames and passwords, reducing password fatigue and improving the overall user experience.
By integrating MFA with SSO, the university ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive academic and personal data, enhancing security. SSO along with centralized identity management also simplifies user management for IT departments, as they can easily add or remove access to various applications when students or staff join or leave the institution.
Government and federal agents, employees, contractors, and partners access a variety of systems every day, including HR platforms, secure communication tools, classified databases, and inter-agency portals. SSO simplifies the login process by allowing users to access all these systems with a single set of credentials.
To provide an SSO example in a federal agency, the United States Department of Homeland Security implements SSO to allow employees to access sensitive data, internal HR systems, and collaboration tools with just one login. Contractors and partners can also use SSO to access external portals or inter-agency systems securely, streamlining access across multiple platforms. Access to government systems needs to be secured with strong MFA factors alongside SSO to ensure that only authorized individuals can access classified or sensitive data, enhancing security and protecting national interests.
Furthermore, centralized provisioning and deprovisioning of users to various systems benefits government IT departments by enabling them to easily add or remove access for employees when they join or leave the agency. This also ensures compliance with federal regulations and enhances operational efficiency.
In the IT industry, users access a variety of systems, including internal tools, development environments, cloud services, and project management platforms. SSO simplifies the authentication process by allowing users to access all of these systems with a single set of credentials.
For example, Zoho Corporation is an IT company that implements SSO to allow its developers, system administrators, and other employees to access necessary tools and platforms with one login. This eliminates the need for users to remember multiple usernames and passwords for different systems, reducing the risk of weak or reused passwords. It also reduces the time spent on logging into each platform individually, improving overall productivity.
MFA-secured SSO ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive development resources and data, enhancing security. Additionally, centralized management of user access allows IT administrators to grant or revoke access quickly to various systems when developers join or leave the company, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure. SSO also streamlines user management, enabling IT to control permissions across systems from a central platform, ensuring efficiency and compliance with security policies.
In the manufacturing sector, employees and managers often access a wide range of systems, from inventory management to production tracking and enterprise resource planning tools. With multiple applications in use, managing logins for each can create inefficiencies and increase the risk of security breaches.
Consider a manufacturing company adopting SSO to enhance both security and user experience. Instead of requiring employees to remember separate login credentials for each system, SSO allows them to access all required tools with one set of credentials. This means a factory worker can log in once in the morning and automatically gain access to the inventory system, maintenance logs, and production schedules without needing to log in separately to each platform. This saves time and reduces frustration.
Additionally, the IT department benefits from simplified user management with a centralized system for assigning and revoking access to various tools. MFA-secured SSO in the manufacturing sector ensures that sensitive data is well protected, users don’t experience credential fatigue, and overall cybersecurity is strengthened.
In e-commerce, customers and administrators access multiple systems such as shopping carts, payment processing platforms, customer support tools, and order management systems. SSO simplifies the login process, allowing users to access all these platforms with a single set of credentials.
For example, Amazon uses SSO to simplify the shopping experience for customers. Once a user logs in to their Amazon account, they can seamlessly access other services like Amazon Prime, Amazon Music, and Amazon Web Services without needing to log in again. This improves the user experience, reduces friction, and ensures secure, centralized access across all Amazon platforms. Adding strong MFA methods to the SSO implementation helps e-commerce platforms ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive customer and business data.
ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus—an identity security solution offering MFA, SSO, and self-service password management—provides SSO for enterprise applications using SAML, OAuth, and OIDC protocols. It protects SSO access with robust MFA that includes 20 different authenticators—such as passwordless and phishing-resistant FIDO passkeys—that admins can easily customize to suit their organization's needs. Here are some key features of ADSelfService Plus that help create an ideal SSO system for your business:
SSO can be secure if implemented with strong protocols—like SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect—along with robust MFA methods. Without MFA or other security layers, SSO can become an attack vector if credentials are compromised.
Some of the best SSO solutions include Okta, known for its easy integration with various applications; ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus, offering custom SSO with adaptive MFA for both cloud and on-premises applications; Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), which offers cloud-based identity management and SSO for enterprise apps; and OneLogin, which provides secure and scalable access management. These SSO apps ensure seamless, secure access across various platforms.
You can leverage ADSelfService Plus' SSO solution which secures both cloud and on-premises applications using passwordless and phishing-resistant MFA. You can integrate a range of preconfigured or custom SAML-, OAuth-, and OIDC-based enterprise applications. To learn more about ADSelfService Plus' SSO and its implementation, click here.
