What are the benefits and risks of the use of SSO? Specify measures that can be taken to better secure an SSO system.
Single sign on (SSO) is a security login feature that many online platforms use to authenticate people, and allow them access to their platform. It’s easy to manage, and provides a basic form of authentication security to access an account or network. It’s easy to use, and for the most part it can be put into place without much problem by network admins, and software developers. It allows people to very quickly access their account or network, helps the user-side-device, and server-side save on storage, and load times, and is generally a very user friendly authentication feature.
Despite all of these positives, it has a number of negatives associated with it. The fact that only a single password is used for authentication makes it more likely that a hacker can Brute Force Attack a network or account using SSO, with some context clues regarding a user’s login information. When SSO fails, and is breached, all systems that it prevents access to are vulnerable to attack. Not only that, but when malicious access occurs, it is very difficult to prove that it was not the user who accessed the network or account at that time; it is essentially a massive single point of failure in exchange for being a streamlined authentication system. While the ease of use can be very beneficial in many circumstances, it poses a massive risk if put into place to protect a database or online account with personal information.