Universal Password Solution - can it really simplify password management?

While password management can be a headache for both users and IT departments, a smart password solution can greatly reduce the complexity of using and managing passwords. However, not all password management solutions are created equal. And, times have shown that universal password is not an effective password security solution for many reasons. Start with the fact that different applications have various standards for password policy. Some have a minimal character length, or even requirements for the mix of characters - capital letters, numbers or even symbols. As well, timing for reset of new passwords is usually different and would make a universal password an even greater headache with which to cope.

So, while password security seeks to avoid a security breach by requiring a password for every application, universal password is a failed attempt at allowing users to not have to remember a dozen or more passwords. Single sign-on addresses password security issues enabling management of passwords that change frequently, ensuring passwords are not lost of forgotten -eliminating frequent and costly calls to the IT help desk.

With single sign on software organizations can sign into a desktop environment, network or application with a single password or by using a strong authentication device, and gain more secure password management benefits than what a universal password approach once promised. Single sign on enables users to be more productive and administrators to track user access to the network and individual applications. Yet many password solutions are difficult to manage and expensive to deploy. For a password solution that provides all the benefits of single sign-on and is affordable and easy to manage, consider Imprivata OneSign® Single Sign On.

Imprivata delivers a better solution to password management than universal password technology

Imprivata OneSign Single Sign-On is an appliance-based password solution that is far more effective than a universal password solution. OneSign dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of deploying and managing password security. As an appliance, OneSign is easy to install as it requires no changes to code or directories and end-users do not need to change their workflows. Installation time and cost are reduced, resulting in much faster return on investment. And for users, OneSign password management technology eliminates the need to remember multiple passwords - and even allows self-service password reset when a password is lost or forgotten.

Benefits of a password management solution

With OneSign's password technology, you can:

• Automate password security. OneSign performs many of the tasks of password management for you. For IT, OneSign can automatically enable applications for SSO and for end users, it can generate strong passwords and change them behind the scenes as required.
• Make compliance reporting easier. With all access events recorded in a single database, OneSign simplifies reporting by allowing administrators to produce aggregated reports on user access with the push of a button.
• Easily integrate with strong authentication devices. OneSign features native support for a variety of strong authentication options, including smart cards, fingerprint biometrics, USB tokens, active and passive proximity cards and One-Time-Password (OTP) tokens.

Learn more about how SSO trumps universal password solutions by speaking with Imprivata or get information about healthcare access management, single sign on server, Active Directory SSO, and details about 'What is SSO?'