Everything You Need to Know About Secure Passwords

Your password – your secret passphrase or PIN that you use for your email, social media profile, or applications at work – is necessary for you to gain access to your accounts. But more importantly, your password plays a critical role in ensuring that no one else has access to your accounts, ensuring the security and privacy of your own as well as your organization’s data and applications.

With advancements in technology, it is important to be aware that there are equally advanced ways in which people steal information belonging to others, and even more ways through which they can misuse that information. Therefore, it goes without saying that secure passwords are of prime importance.

Common Password-Related Mistakes

You can’t blame yourself for being naturally inclined to choose a simple password that will be easy to remember. Unfortunately, these are the very same passwords that are also easy to guess or crack with a hacking software. Remember that, if information about you that can be found online – your date of birth, favourite colour, pet’s name, and so on – is incorporated into your password, it becomes even more vulnerable.

Another mistake made by most people is that a common password is used across multiple online accounts. The problem with doing this is, if someone manages to crack your password to one account, you are giving them free access to the rest!

Writing down your password or saving it somewhere online? This is a very naive act that can put your entire online data at risk of being accessed and stolen easily. Some of the other mistakes you might be making when it comes to passwords is that you don’t change the factory-set or default password, you use the same password for too long, and so on.

Tips to Set Up a Secure Password

    • Create a long password with a minimum length of 10-12 characters
    • Use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
    • Special characters need to spread out across the password and not be limited to the first or last place
    • Do not use the same password for multiple security points
    • Change your passwords every 1-3 months
    • Avoid using words with obvious references to your personal life
    • Avoid using dictionary words as a whole

Passwords in the Workplace

In the workplace, the importance of a secure password is further amplified because the breach of a corporate network can have consequences that will affect the entire business.

Employees, who are otherwise the biggest assets to a company or business, also become the weakest link in the security chain protecting its data. The reason? Poor password selection and the subsequent compromise to data security. A single password, if compromised, can open the security gates and let intruders in.

Combating Weak Passwords in the Workplace

A good password policy is the weapon of choice when it comes to combating the threat of weak passwords.

A password policy is a set of guidelines that help users set up strong and secure passwords. When a password policy is enforced, a user is not allowed to create a password that does not abide by these guidelines.

Some essential features of a password policy are:

1) Password Length & Complexity Requirement

The password policy ensures that every password created is of a minimum length (for example, at least 6 characters long) and needs to use a variety of character types (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, special characters).

2) Minimum & Maximum Password Age

This part of the password policy decides how often a password is to be changed. Ideally, a good password policy ensures the expiry of a password once in 3 months, so the user is forced to create a new password. However, if a policy prompts the user to change their password too often, they may be tempted to write it down or store it elsewhere. This, again, will compromise security.

3) Password History

When a user is prompted to change a password, he/she may tend to reuse a password they had earlier used for the same application. By enforcing a good password policy, users will not be allowed to reuse an old password at least for another 5 times.

4) Number of Failed Attempts

A password policy also establishes the maximum number of invalid attempts allowed before an account will be locked out temporarily. Once locked, the account may need administrator support to be unlocked and made accessible again.

Beyond Password Security

For companies and businesses that use highly-sensitive data, it may be required to go one step beyond just a good password policy that enforces strong passwords. In such cases, a two-factor or multi-factor authentication functionality may be enforced, where additional layers of security are integrated into the sign-in process.

With such a functionality, users will be required to re-validate their identity using one or more of the following:

    • A one-time password or PIN
    • A thumbprint or retina scan
    • A Yubikey, smart card, USB token, or magnetic strip card

Usually, a good Identity and Access Management (IAM) like Akku by CloudNow Technologies will provide companies and businesses with the security features they require by enforcing strong password policies, multi-factor authentication functionalities, and other advanced security features like IP and device-based restrictions.

Are your users’ weak passwords keeping you up at night? Speak to us to see how Akku can help with Password Policy Enforcement and Multi-factor Authentication.

Secure and Easy User Management: SCIM through the Fundamentals

What is SCIM?

The System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) is an open standard specification, designed to make user management easy. It essentially allows admins of cloud and on-premise networks to move users in and out of their systems quickly and easily. The system builds on inputs from existing user management schemas and allows the integration of powerful authentication models. It uses a common user schema in coordination with an extension model which allows for seamless migration of user data between different nodes of the system.

SCIM transmits user data between identity providers (like Akku by CloudNow) and service providers (SaaS applications) using a secure protocol. When this is used in conjunction with a robust authorization system, it gives rise to a powerful identity and access management solution. If not for SCIM, the IT departments of every organization would have to dedicate time and resource to managing access control, instead of simply automating the process.

How does SCIM help in Creating a Powerful Identity and Access Management Solution?

Like we mentioned earlier, SCIM enables the communication between the identity provider and an enterprise SaaS application which needs user information to process, create, modify or remove users from accessing a network. SCIM is built using REST and JSON to define and establish the roles of the client and server – in this case, the identity provider acts as the client and the SaaS application acts as the server.

Identity providers like Akku contain a directory of user identities which is normally extracted by the server. In most cases, the server can extract information from directories other than the identity providers as well. But migrating the data to an identity provider can significantly improve the security of the user management system. When the client or identity provider makes changes to any user information, it immediately reflects in the server or SaaS application by using the SCIM protocol. With SCIM, you can create, replace, delete, search and update user information.

The client or identity provider can also view the data present on the server and record any mismatches. If irregularities between the client and server are not immediately noticed and rectified, it could lead to a potential security breach.

How can Akku help you?

With organizations moving their operations to the cloud at breakneck speeds, the need to streamline and implement a Single Sign-on solution is constantly rising. Akku is one of the best Identity and Access Management Solutions available in the market, allowing you to integrate with third party applications as well as our own suite, to take your identity and user management efforts to the next level. This simplifies the work of your organization’s cloud or on-premise network administrators to grant access to several users and applications. For your users, this means remembering only one set of credentials for several applications.

Speak to us to see how Akku’s Single Sign-on can help you manage your users more efficiently.

A Step Closer to GDPR Compliance: A Strong Password Policy

The European Union enforced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 with three main aims: to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower the data privacy of all EU citizens and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy. As you can see “data privacy” is the keyword in all three of the above mentioned aims. With multiple data breaches coming to light in the recent years, even from several of the world’s biggest corporates, the European Union has enforced stringent measures to regulate the use and prevent the misuse of citizens’ data through the GDPR.

Compliance and Consequences

As stated specifically in the GDPR, all enterprises (whether businesses or organizations) must take a “high level of protection of personal data” as one of their top priorities so that the “abuse or unlawful access or transfer” of such data may be prevented. If data is breached, or if GDPR procedures are compromised, the enterprise will face serious penalties. The fine for the non-compliance to GDPR for breach of data could be up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher, depending on the type and extent of the breach.

This applies not only to enterprises within the EU, but also to those that may be located outside and offer goods or services of any type to the EU. The GDPR rules also apply to cloud controllers and processors.

The Emphasis on Passwords

Interestingly, the GDPR does not place any direct regulations on the way passwords are created or used. However, when it comes to the protection of online data, it’s hard to argue against securing passwords being the logical first step. On the one side, businesses that provide access to customers through an online portal typically ensure that they are creating secure passwords to sign in to by enforcing password policies that define their length and other parameters.

However, the slip often occurs when the employees of these enterprises are allowed to create weak passwords for accessing in-house applications. What is often forgotten is that these applications also carry sensitive data that belong to both the enterprise and its customers. A compromise here can cost the enterprise more than just the data; it will cost its credibility as well.

A strong password policy, therefore, becomes a key first step in the path to GDPR compliance.

The Inevitability of a Password Policy

By enforcing a strong password policy, administrators can ensure that users of an enterprise’s applications set up and use only passwords that are secure and, therefore, much less susceptible to brute force attacks and other hacking attempts.

A password policy defines and enforces a set of rules that include the minimum length, acceptable combination of small and upper case letters, use of numbers and special characters, expiration period of passwords and so on.

Without a password policy, the administrators of an enterprise would have no control over the type of passwords their users set, and would have their hands tied when it comes to situations that lead to a data breach, making it hard to demonstrate the GDPR’s requirement of a “high level of protection of personal data”.

This makes a strong password policy a critical requirement for every on-premise as well as cloud-based application, both for data security and to work towards complying with this aspect of the GDPR.

The Hybrid and Multi Cloud Conundrum

Unfortunately, setting in place a password policy across all of an enterprise’s applications is much easier said than done.

Most enterprises use a wide range of applications across different platforms – both cloud-based and on-premise – with each application operating on different technologies and each with its own identity management and password policy, controlling how users set up passwords in each application can often be an expensive and time consuming process.

Implementing a common bridge layer across of the applications used by the enterprise in the form of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution to act as the identity provider (IdP) across all applications is the best way to overcome this challenge.

The Akku Solution

Akku is an identity and access management solution that integrates all of the on-premise and cloud-based applications of an enterprise, providing a single platform for administrators to control employee access, permissions, and levels of control within its different applications.

With Akku playing the role of the identity provider (IdP), it enables administrators to set up a single password policy that will instantly be applied to all of the applications that are accessed by a user at the workplace. This password policy holds good, irrespective of whether the application is on-premise or cloud-based, or across different platforms. Akku also allows for the secure resetting of passwords, as specified by GDPR standards. Besides password policy enforcement, Akku also utilizes a custom salted-hash function, users’ credentials are also encrypted to ensure a high level of security.

Want to explore a quick and hassle-free password policy implementation across your enterprise applications? Get in touch with us today at sales@akku.work

Addressing Challenges in Implementing “The Use of Company Property” policy at a Leading Insurance Company

Company X is a leading insurance company which provides laptops to all employees for their work, regardless of their grade in the organization’s hierarchy.

The company has deployed a gateway firewall, incorporated with a DNS filter to blacklist or whitelist access to certain websites. In this manner, users are denied access to malicious websites, and threats due to unauthorized website use is prevented while users are within the office network.

How DNS Filtering Works?

Whenever a user makes an internet search, a request is passed on to the network through an IP. However, when DNS filtering is implemented in an organization, the relevant web page is redirected to the firewall where the restrictions are verified. If it has been blacklisted, access to the webpage is blocked.

Loophole Causing Security Concern

When more and more users beginning to work from home or work while travelling using the laptops provided by the company, Company X began facing new security concerns.

Although the firewall’s DNS filter was effective when users were within the office network, the user’s laptops were outside of the firewall’s reach. This meant that users could access any site or download any software without any restrictions, exposing the company-owned devices (COD) at risk due to unauthorized websites. This, in turn, threatened to compromise both the devices and the data stored in them.

It also made the devices non-compliant to the Company Owned Device (COD) policy.

Prognosis

The DNS filtering rules set by the company no longer applied when users took their devices outside their network and firewall. Addressing this issue, CloudNow’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution was deployed. With its website filtering feature, maintaining DNS filter rules was made possible, even outside the firewall.

With Akku, requests made by users to access any website goes through its DNS filter, which checks for restrictions and blocks unauthorized web pages. Here, the router acts only as the connecting bridge to the internet. This makes it possible to maintain website blocking instructions for devices, disregarding where the users access them from through the internet.

Why is DNS Filtering Outside your Firewall is a Necessity?

It is a vital for all organizations to increase the security of their data by preventing access to malicious websites in CODs. Additionally, this feature ensures that all CODs comply with security standards and remain audit-ready.

Maintain your DNS filter rules even outside your office premises with AKKU’s website filtering feature.

Bolster Data Security with a Powerful and Flexible Password Policy

An array of information being stored online comes with major security risks. Therefore safeguarding data is an important consideration at any organization. And the security of your data relies heavily on the strength of your users’ passwords. The stronger your passwords, the more secure your data! It is important for administrators to drive a strong password policy enforcement, as it is the first layer of defence against black hat hackers and scammers.

A password policy is a set of rules created to upgrade an application’s security by requiring its users to frame a strong password and to utilize it in an appropriate way.

Why is Securing your Border Vital?

In today’s scenario setting up unique passwords for multiple applications is a burden for any user. Most users rely on using a single password for multiple applications, which can put the organization’s data at risk.

This makes implementing a strong password policy essential in protecting your data. Additionally, setting a Password Policy forms a part of the policies or rules for an organization to comply with ISO and PCI certifications.

Top Four Factors for Password Policies

Enforcing a strong password policy in an organization is an uphill task. There are some fundamental norms which are followed by a majority of organizations.

1. Length: The longer the password, the more difficult it is to crack. Set a minimum of 8 characters for your users’ passwords.

2.Complexity: The level of security depends on the complexity of the password framed. Passwords must have a mix of uppercase characters (A-Z), lowercase characters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and punctuations ( eg. !, #, $,*).

3.Expiration: A best practice in improving password security is to have a periodic password expiry. Most often the validity is 30/45 days and at the end of expiry date, the user is forced to change their password.

4.Uniqueness: Require users to set a unique password that has not been used previously when they reset their password.

How Can a Forgotten Password be Securely Retrieved?

When a user logs in with the right password, he is permitted to access the organization’s applications. On the other hand, when a user logs in with incorrect credentials, if the organization allows SSPR (Self Service Password Reset) then the system prompts the user to reset the password on his own.

Here’s how it works – a window pops up with a certain number of questions, and when the user answers all the questions correctly, he is permitted to reset the password. However, this process leaves the door open to social engineering attacks by black hat hackers.

A safer approach is to disallow SSPR in the password policy of an organization. In this scenario, the only way to reset a user’s password is to reach out the admin – this is safer and does not allow any intrusion through social engineering, and therefore reduces the data security threat.

How can a Forgotten Password be Securely Retrieved
How can a Forgotten Password be Securely Retrieved

I shall write more about SSPR and social engineering in my next article.

Enforce a strong custom Password Policy across your organization using Akku’s Password Policy Enforcement feature which brings it all together for improved security.

Harnessing the Power of YouTube for your Institution

Many tools or resources we use come with both pros and cons depending on how we make use of them. YouTube is no different – in the scenario of a school or college, it can be a gamechanger if used effectively, or it can have a negative impact on work and productivity if misused.

As the most popular platform for accessing video content, YouTube is a major e-Learning resource, where it is possible to access content on almost any subject. It provides access to answers to queries and presents content visually, which tends to be faster and more effective for learning than reading.

YouTube has huge volumes of content and e-learning videos from different parts of the world by certified teachers and professors, all of which are accessible at no cost, offering a major benefit to institutes.

However, YouTube access is restricted in almost every educational institution, because of its potential negatives. One major concern of management is students accessing irrelevant content.

For example, if a student is trying to access any video from YouTube there is a high chance of him/her getting distracted by content from unrelated topics, leading to a loss in productivity and concentration.

YouTube itself provides a filtering solution to address this issue – YouTube’s Restricted mode. But even if YouTube is used in Restricted mode, irrelevant videos can be accessed if the user uses an incognito window or uses YouTube without signing in.

Therefore it is vital for both the institute and its students to provide access only to relevant videos from YouTube.

Most institutes block students from accessing unwanted websites through firewall settings. However, students from today’s generation are aware of loopholes by using a proxy server to access any sites they want, which does not serve the purpose of having the firewall in place.

So completely blocking access to YouTube is not the right solution, since this is also often not completely effective, and you will end up restricting access to the biggest learning platform for your students.

Instead, putting in place a YouTube Filtering mechanism, which can act as a firewall and give access only to relevant content from approved channels and categories on YouTube while denying access to irrelevant content is the optimal solution.

Leverage the power of YouTube for your institutions without worrying about the downside with the help of Akku’s YouTube Filtering.

To know how YouTube filtering works: https://www.akku.work/blog/youtube-usage-at-the-office-is-no-longer-a-worry/

Permit Access only from Approved Devices and Whitelisted IPs!

Allowing your users to access your official data from anywhere and at any time sounds like a great idea! They can complete their work even when they are on the move by accessing your company’s cloud-based applications. So, why should we restrict access when it has all these pros?

When you permit unshackled access to your company’s applications from any location and device then you also expose your company’s sensitive data and apps to the risk of security or privacy breaches. The possibility of unauthorized access to your sensitive data is a major concern for any company using cloud-based applications.

Why do you need IP restriction?

IP-based access restriction is a great way to secure and protect your mission-critical business data outside your LAN by preventing access to your apps from any IP addresses other than your trusted whitelisted IP ranges.

How does IP-based restriction work?

An IAM solution offering IP-based restriction uses a customized SAML API and integrates with your cloud-based applications. That way, identity management is brought into a common platform across all service providers, with the IAM solution acting as the identity provider. With the identity provider enabling one point control, it is possible to restrict access to your applications only from permitted locations, regulations and IP addresses.

Why restrict based on device?

Device-based access restriction allows you to allow access for specific users only from authorized devices, to prevent misuse or loss of data – that way, users cannot access applications from devices that have not been approved for their use, and unauthorized people cannot access data from devices that may have been approved for other users.

How does device-based restriction work?

With many IAM solutions, device-based restriction is applied through the use of plugins – however more advanced solutions make use of a certificate-based authentication method which has the major advantage of being tamper proof.

A secure certificate-based authentication is completely platform and browser independent and enables cloud administrators to provide or revoke access to SaaS based applications only from specific devices, even when they are outside the office network. Restricting access based on device helps to minimize data breaches and provides the right access to the right people.

Akku offers an IP and device based access restriction feature to help ensure that your data is secure and well protected.

YouTube Usage at the Office is No Longer a Worry!

Using YouTube at the office is often viewed negatively, both because of it results in heavy bandwidth consumption, and in reduced employee productivity. At the same time, YouTube is a huge digital library where it is possible to access content on almost any subject.

In today’s fast-moving business scenario, YouTube is one of the best platforms to enhance knowledge and skills. While lectures and training may tend to get boring, digital learning is a great way to build interest. YouTube has an enormous range of content from various categories.

Training and development is a department for which YouTube is an essential and effective resource. Trainers can train employees with e-learning videos from YouTube at no cost, and can also recommend videos related to their work and skills to help them perform better.

So completely blocking access to YouTube is not the right solution either, since you will end up restricting the biggest learning platform for your employees.

Providing access to or blocking YouTube tends to be viewed to be an all or nothing exercise – but there is a middle path. Implementing a YouTube filtering solution on your cloud can get you the best of both worlds.

What is YouTube Filtering?

YouTube Filtering is an interesting feature of select Identity and Access Management solutions, which can whitelist specific videos from YouTube based on categories and channels.

YouTube filtering restricts people from accessing irrelevant content on YouTube. Restricted and Moderate Restricted modes can also be activated using a YouTube filter – the Restricted mode helps to block all 18+ content from YouTube while the Moderate Restricted mode prevents employees from liking, commenting on or sharing videos.

How does it work?

YouTube Filtering works with the help of a proxy server which reads the metadata consisting of the channel name, category, channel ID, file name and so on.

For instance, when the user is searching for a video on YouTube, the proxy server will read the metadata to confirm whether the channel is whitelisted, based on which it displays the video. If the channel is not whitelisted, an error is displayed to the user that access to the video is not permitted.

Leverage the power of YouTube for your organization without worrying about the downside with Akku’s YouTube Filtering feature.

How an Identity and Access Management Solution Can Help Your Data Driven Business

Cloud technology has broken several operational barriers to make remote data access easy. It allows you to scale your business with minimal cost while securely holding business-critical data and applications. But with all these advantages comes a catch – managing personnel access for all the applications and files in your network has become increasingly cumbersome.

Why does your organization need an Identity and Access Management Solution?

Managing the credentials of all your employees across all the verticals of even a small to mid sized organization is time-consuming. It can drain the productivity of your company’s Human Resource and IT management teams. They are valuable resources who could otherwise focus on their core competencies to help you grow your business.

In addition to this, securing your network from breaches and other threats can be challenging with so many people accessing your cloud from various devices and locations. If your network is compromised, all your critical business data is compromised along with it.

This is where an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution can come in handy. It allows you to seamlessly manage access while protecting your cloud network from breaches.

Building blocks of an IAM solution

A strong Single Sign-on (SSO) function is at the heart of an IAM solution. The first step in implementing an SSO is to determine and streamline the role of the identity provider (IdP). The IdP is responsible for bringing all the applications and data on your cloud network to a centralized platform. From this platform, access and identity services are managed through a customized Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). When a high end, customizable SAML is integrated with your enterprise cloud network, it can result in a secure Single Sign-on solution.

With a cloud SSO setup, you can provide each member of your organization with single login credentials for any or all the applications in your cloud network. With your own powerful Identity Provider, you can redirect all access authentications to a safe and fast network. With this setup in place, it is possible to consolidate a single node in your network to control access to your entire organization’s cloud network.

Features of an IAM System

With an efficient Identity and Access Management system, you can accomplish so much more than just rudimentary monitoring of your cloud network. It will come with a well rounded set of features which allows you to control your cloud in a convenient platform. If your network is fitted with a powerful cloud IAM solution, it will automatically come with provisions in place to handle password standardization and multi-factor authentication frameworks.

Single Sign-on

Allocating a single set of credentials for your employees to access relevant data and applications is made easy by implementing an SSO solution for your cloud network. As the admin of your network, it also becomes simple for you to handle access operations in a single dashboard. In addition to this, if the need arises for a user to be removed, it can be done in a few short steps instead of removing access individually for all your applications. When all of this comes together seamlessly, it results in improved productivity across your organization.

Multi-factor Authentication

Sometimes, in spite of the password protection measures you have implemented to secure your cloud, you might feel the need to bring in an additional layer of security to protect all your critical business applications. When that need arises, a well structured IAM solution allows you to keep in place, a multi-factor authentication system. It ensures that your system is insulated against remote attacks and prevents unauthorized access from getting a foothold in your secure network. This will enable you to extract data from TOTPs, thumbprint scanners or even Yubikeys and verify the users accessing your cloud network.

Password Policy Enforcement

Another challenge faced while trying to secure a cloud network is the varying standards of all the passwords of all the users who access it. The difference in standards can make breaches easier to happen and there rises a need for standardization of all the password credentials issued to the users of your cloud. But with an IAM solution, you can set the minimum standard required to set a password. With an effective password policy enforcement, you can rest assured that all your critical data is protected irrespective of the number of service providers you are associated with. It consolidates all the applications on your network under a single identity and verifies that all the passwords required to access your network comply with PCI and ISO/IECt standards.

Securing your cloud with an effective Identity and Access Management solution can empower you to control identity and access across your cloud environment. In addition to this, an IAM solution helps you improve data security, privacy, standards compliance, and productivity.