Single Sign On (SSO) and Multifactor Authentication (MFA) have quickly emerged as one of the most employed security solutions as organizations look to increase security and the user experience. Both are meant to protect access but in different ways and position their advantages and disadvantages differently.
What Is Single Sign-On?
SSO simplifies authentication by allowing for the same amount of logins across the number of applications or systems. With this the user does not need to remember multiple passwords, while potential password problems like lost password are lessened.
As it is centralized authentication, one of the key benefits of SSO is it simplifies administrative burden and is therefore an appealing solution for businesses with many users and applications to maintain. But if the SSO credentials are broken down, attackers can gain access to all of the accounts linked to them, hence the necessity of good supplementary security.
What Is Multifactor Authentication?
MFA makes the security stronger when using the two or more factors to confirm users. Typically, these involve something the user knows (like a password), something they have (a security token) or something they are (a fingerprint). By introducing this layered approach, risks connected to compromised credentials are mitigated because attackers will need to hack through several barriers to get around without permission.
As a highly secure approach, MFA brings friction to the user experience as well, requiring them to go through additional steps on login. However, it seldom got used despite this.
SSO vs. MFA: Key Differences
Basically, SSO and MFA are distinguished by their goals. Whereas SSO simplifies access to your data with just one account in mind, MFA adds further layers of verification for those who want security, without compromising ease of use. When choosing between these two solutions for a business, there needs to be a weighing of convenience versus protection.
MFA integrated with SSO provides one of the strongest security frameworks for organizations that want the best of both worlds.
Pros and Cons of SSO
SSO increases productivity because there are less log in times and less of a headache remembering passwords. It improves user satisfaction and takes a load off IT of account recovery work. While it has the benefit of relying on a single set of credentials, that very same potential for a security breach is introduced if those credentials get stolen.
Pros and Cons of MFA
What MFA offers is solid security. Even if an attacker breaches one authentication factor they now have to overcome additional hurdles. While the extra steps can be inconvenient for users and relatively costly to implement for businesses, many of them have managed to integrate the functionality into their apps wonderfully.
Choosing the Right Solution
For the adoption of SSO vs MFA, there exists a case study for every company, based on the business needs and technical needs. If your organization values user convenience and manages multiple applications, SSO might be the perfect choice for you. In contrast, MFA is a better choice for companies when they’re dealing with sensitive data, or in high risk industries.
However, there are many businesses where the best option is to combine the two solutions. Combining SSO with MFA provides a balanced approach which delivers the ease of use that users are searching for, while the security the organization is required to implement doesn’t sacrifice cybersecurity standards.
