Closing the Workforce Password Management Gap in the Enterprise: Part 2

By Khizar Sultan, VP, Identity Solutions, CyberArk

Four Best Practices for Closing the Enterprise Password Security Gap

Since attackers can often exploit employee credentials as if they are privileged, organizations must secure all credentials with privileged controls. This includes employing the highest level of security in how passwords are stored, shared, created and managed. But, at the same time, that doesn’t mean employees should jump through more hoops. By embracing these four strategic steps, organizations can create a user-friendly experience that their workforce will love (and stick to), while also ensuring the security, control and visibility that they need.

1. Security-First Password Storage and Retrieval

IT and security teams can protect against the most common identity-based attacks by adopting a security-first approach to storing workforce credentials. When evaluating solutions, organizations should look for capabilities that:

• Can centrally store and manage all credentials in a secure vault, either in the cloud or on-premises, depending on organizational needs, and protect them with strong encryption and access controls
• Secure more than just passwords, such as notes, software license keys, PINs, serial numbers and other sensitive items
• Ensure that only strong passwords are used and align policies to NIST password guidelines
• Include built-in MFA functionality for step-up authentication or continuous authentication to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to high-risk business app credentials

Organizations can bolster protections by enabling automated, real-time password retrieval from their chosen cloud or vault location. Inspired by just-in-time privilege controls, this capability can help IT and security teams ensure passwords are never stored locally at endpoints, staying outside the reach of local device malware.

2. Effortless Logins and Instant Access

Eighty-six percent of security leaders believe that optimizing the user experience is “important-to-very important” for enabling Zero Trust success through Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools. Building upon that perspective, enterprises can eliminate password-related pain and frustration for end users by:

• Simplifying access to business apps by securely auto-filling credentials at login and automatically capturing them when new accounts are created
• Generating strong, complex and unique passwords for users whenever needed, while detecting and blocking the use of passwords that were previously involved in a data breach
• Seamlessly integrating with SSO, corporate directories and third-party identity providers to give users a consistent login experience from a centralized user portal
• Enabling secure, simple credential sharing with internal teams

Such features can help reduce password fatigue, help end users focus on what they were hired to do, and eliminate risky habits that can unwittingly create openings for bad actors.

According to Gartner, “Employees handling numerous accounts and passwords can benefit from a workforce password management tool. The tool simplifies password management and enhances security, thereby strengthening the organization’s overall security posture.”

Source: Gartner, “Buyer’s Guide for Workforce Password Management Tools,” 4 January 2025

3. Enterprise-Designed Visibility and Control

An enterprise-grade approach to password protection should provide real-time visibility into users’ access activity. For example, security admins need the ability to:

• Determine which employees have accessed a specific application during a particular time
• Restrict users from adding personal applications and block certain URLs
• Enable or disable features such as file sharing
• Report on credential sharing between colleagues and teams
• Add additional security layers, or privileged controls, for certain users or apps
• View password-related risks like aged or weak passwords

Going a step further, protection must continue past the point of authentication. Enterprises should have the ability to monitor and record all actions taking place once a user is logged into a session.

With ever-increasing compliance demands, it’s important to ensure any records surrounding high-risk actions taken in apps are backed up by a full audit trail.

4. Safe Credential Management and Sharing

IT and security teams are looking for greater visibility and control over who can access credentials and when. Using an enterprise-grade approach, organizations can ensure that end users, for example, team managers in the business, can securely share their credentials without revealing the actual passwords.

Here are additional capabilities that can strengthen an organization’s security posture:

• Protect privacy by controlling who can share, view and edit credentials
• Impose time limits on user access when sharing credentials for certain applications; for example, if a manager goes on vacation and needs to grant a worker temporary access for a set number of days
• Prevent users from saving passwords in built-in browser password managers, reducing the number of account and credential repositories
• Manage the transfer of credential ownership to new users

Since workforce turnover is inevitable, this level of control is essential. Look for capabilities that allow admins to transfer ownership automatically without losing the chain of custody when the primary owner leaves the organization. This approach can also help organizations onboard new users at scale without losing time or information.

Striking the Right Balance

Securing passwords has never been more important. While personal password management tools might offer simple user experiences, they aren’t equipped with the controls needed to secure a large, complex workforce’s credentials.

Truly protecting against credential-based attacks takes a layered, end-to-end identity security approach that ensures credentials are securely stored, managed, shared and obfuscated at login. This also means protecting them from compromise on the endpoint and from attacks that prey on weak passwords, while continuously monitoring for risk. Yet these multi-pronged security measures can’t come at the user’s expense. By focusing on the four areas outlined in this piece, security decision-makers can strike an effective balance between protection and productivity, empowering end-users to participate in their security.

Workforce Identity Security: Protect Every Step of the User’s Journey

Of course, enterprise security is a continuous journey, not a destination. As your organization bolsters its password protection capabilities, you can build toward a holistic Identity Security approach that combines a range of controls and solutions. Ultimately, this will enable you to secure all credentials, passwords and secrets at every stage of an identity’s access journey—from initial login at the endpoint, to accessing SaaS apps and cloud infrastructure and throughout a user’s session.

Enterprise Security Demands Enterprise-Grade Solutions. Don’t Settle for Less.

CyberArk Workforce Password Management (WPM) is an enterprise-designed solution that addresses both the security risks of compromised credentials and the challenges of managing passwords for employees and IT teams.

CyberArk Workforce Password Management simplifies managing passwords, protects work accounts, and gives companies visibility and control over password security.

With Workforce Password Management, users can easily add application credentials to their user portal, access apps with a click of a button, and securely share credentials with internal teams. Behind the scenes, passwords are securely stored in the CyberArk Identity Cloud or self-hosted CyberArk Vault, providing security teams granular control and visibility. Further, the included MFA capabilities reduce the risk of unauthorized access to business app credentials.

Explore our solutions for applying enterprise-grade protection to your workforce’s passwords. Learn More https://www.cyberark.com/resources/workforce-access

Connect with a CyberArk team member to discuss your business and security needs. Schedule a Meeting https://www.cyberark.com/request-demo/