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As software as a service solutions become more prominent in the enterprise, having a proper enterprise password management solution is a key part of a healthy security ecosystem. As organizations continue to move away from Active Directory as the single login system, having a solution like 1Password or LastPass is critical – even if a single sign on solution like Okta is deployed.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 100s of Macs, and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
Password management is getting ready for one of its most significant upheavals in many decades. Passkey support in iOS 16 and macOS Venture. After spending some time with Passkeys in the beta on a few sample sites, I believe it’s going to be amazing long term for improving security of accounts for logging in to various services. Taking the guesswork out of generating long passwords and storing them will reduce the impact of phishing in a massive way. I don’t think Passkeys will eliminate the need for a company-wide enterprise password management solution, though.
How enterprises will manage Passkeys
Passkeys won’t eliminate the need for an enterprise password management solution, just like password syncing in Chrome and Safari didn’t. 1Password announced in June that they’d joined the FIDO Alliance and will be supporting the underlying technology in their apps in the future; the FDIO Alliance is responsible for the underlying technology used in Passkeys. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all members of the alliance and have a vested interest in improving enterprise password management.
As technology advances, new methods of authenticating – including passwordless – continue to appear. By joining the FIDO Alliance, we’re taking an active role in shaping what comes next. As more services adopt passwordless approaches for authentication, 1Password will be ready to ensure our customers can log in securely without worrying about what technology is under the hood.
LastPass is also a supporter of the FIDO Alliance as well. They’ve held a seat on the FIDO Alliance board since 2020. With both major enterprise password management vendors supporting the FIDO Alliance, it’s clear that technology for a passwordless login is coming in big way. I don’t believe enterprises will want to lean on a password management solution tied to Apple, Google, or Microsoft, though. It makes sense to deploy a purpose-built solution for password management that can extend across a company’s fleet. 1Password and Lastpass will both excel in the years to come.
Enterprise password management enables sharing of information
An IT team will want a proper enterprise password management solution for sharing information across a team. For services and solutions that don’t support team authentication, a login to a resource or service might require a shared account. An enterprise password management solution is the ideal solution here. A company won’t see a benefit from these logins staying locked in a managed Apple ID or a Google Workspace account. These solutions work great for home users, but for IT teams, a subscription product is an ideal way to go as it’ll be better supported and have better integration across all your devices.
Even past login management, 1Password is going a step further. 1Password is building out some impressive developer tools as well. In the latest version of 1Password, users can now manage SSH keys, and infrastructure secrets. Using 1Password’s CLI functionality and dynamically injecting secrets from 1Password at runtime without manual intervention. While it might not be something every 1Password user will use, it certainly shows they’re going after complex enterprise needs.
Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kolide, endpoint security for teams that Slack. Kolide notifies your team via Slack when their devices are insecure and gives them step-by-step instructions on how to solve the problem. Meet your compliance goals using the most powerful, untapped resource in IT: end-users. Try Kolide for free today.
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