Tools for enforcing authentication policy

As the frequency and sophistication of cyberthreats continue to rise, organizations must urgently enforce phishing-resistant authentication protocols across every device and system. 

Stolen credentials are the leading initial vector of attack in successful breaches, which means security teams need to arm themselves with a robust Identity strategy capable of thwarting would-be attackers at the moment of attack.

 

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A better approach to enforcement

However, many organizations defer to individual point solutions that deliver poor outcomes when building their overall Identity environments. Distributed oversight and poor integrations between apps and systems lead to inconsistent authentication policy enforcement, weakening the organization’s overall security posture. 

Security leaders need to go beyond converging their Identity tools to adopt a genuinely unified approach to Identity, one that offers consistent enforcement and higher levels of control.

Okta elevates Identity and Access Management (IAM) across the spectrum of posture, access, and governance by centralizing and tightly integrating every aspect of Identity. The result? Powerful enforcement of authentication policy and stronger organization-wide security.

Here’s how we do it.

 

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Okta delivers a robust defense against phishing attacks while also facilitating secure, streamlined, and continuous employee access to key systems and resources. 

 

Okta Access Management

What it is

A seamless, unified management system for defining and enforcing user access permissions across different roles, functions, and systems.

What it does

Helps security leaders enforce least-privilege access and protect against phishing attacks through an adaptable and powerful suite of features.

How it does it

  • Unified administration –– Okta Universal Directory allows administrators to create and manage users and groups and assign permissions based on user attributes.
  • Phishing-resistant login –– Adaptive MFA and single sign-on dramatically reduce the risk of phishing-based attacks. 
  • Risk-based enforcement –– Secure, seamless implementation of phishing-resistant policies across roles and resources based on contextual information: device trust, EDR, ZTNA, MDM signals, etc.
  • Time-bound access made simple –– Administrators can easily enforce time-bound access requests, determine the length of access, and securely extend this temporary access even to their most critical infrastructure, including servers, SaaS applications, and databases.
  • Additional protections for highly sensitive information –– Transactional MFA and secrets vaulting keep mission-critical applications ultra-secure.

 

Okta Privileged Access

Okta Privileged Access makes it simple to deliver unified access to and governance of privileged resources, both on-prem and in the cloud. Okta PA increases visibility, strengthens compliance, and ensures rigorous security without adding unnecessary friction to the user experience, making it the ideal tool for providing fast and secure access to sensitive resources.

 

  • SSH and RDP tooling integration and session recording
  • Dynamic Client Certificate architecture
  • Server account lifecycle management
  • Vaulting of local server account passwords
  • Continuous server local account discovery
  • Scheduled password rotation
  • Integration with Okta Access Request
  • Customizable multi-level approval builder
  • CLI integration for a better SSH experience
  • High-availability proxy gateway
  • Native integration with the Okta System Log

 

The impact of unified Identity

To provide their organizations with the strongest possible defense against the rising tide of sophisticated threats, security leaders need to adopt an approach to Identity-powered security that mitigates threats before, during, and after authentication-based attacks. Okta unifies every aspect of your Identity security, ensuring that least-privileged access is consistently enforced.

 

Before unifying Identity with Okta

After unifying Identity with Okta

Fragmented access policy determinations make it difficult or impossible to consistently adhere to a least-privileged access standard, weakening your Identity posture and exposing your organization to unnecessary risk.

Centralized policy administration (powered by advanced automation and continuous risk monitoring) helps your organization maintain least-privileged access across your entire tech stack.

Fragmented authentication policies don’t adapt to contextual information, adding unnecessary friction in some cases while not enforcing strict authentication in more risky scenarios.

Tight integration with continuous risk monitoring functions ensures least-privileged access and sends step-up authentication requests when contextual information suggests heightened risk. 

Inconsistent enforcement of time-bound access leads to overlong access and new vulnerabilities for bad actors to exploit.

Time-bound access is centrally managed and equipped with automated functionality that prevents overlong access.

 

For more information on the other stages of threat protection, check out our blogs on the unified response to pre-auth and post-auth security.

If you’re looking for more information on unified Identity in general, check out our solution brief.