This article was written by Rebecca Stone, Senior Product Marketing Manager at LastPass.
How the right solution can make your life easier.
Password management is a great tool for saving time and simplifying log ins, but the benefits of a good solution don’t stop there. For MSPs, the right password management tool can actually help alleviate some major problems that are encountered daily.
In this article, we’ll talk about five MSP issues that can be solved with password management.
1. Reduce risk from data breaches.
We live in a world where large-scale data breaches are now a fact of life. Data breaches can expose the login information for a service’s entire user base, giving cyberattackers access to not only the accounts for that service, but access to any service where that user used the same password. For businesses, this means that a completely unrelated data breach could give hackers the information they need to break in – all because one employee used the same password for a work account as the one they used for the service that got breached.
This is why it’s recommended that you set every single password to be different from the last – not just with small variations, but using completely unique combinations each time. Unfortunately, that can be harder than it sounds.
We found that the average employee has 191 passwords for work accounts. For proper password hygiene, that requires each employee to create and remember 191 completely unique passwords. But the reality is that users aren’t going to be able to come up with that many different options (much less be able to remember them). They will likely suffer from “password fatigue” while trying to come up with new combinations and begin to reuse codes or only vary each one slightly.
With a proper password management solution, you can eliminate this burden for your end users, allowing them to automatically generate randomized, secure passwords for each account and then store them in a vault. To gain access to the vault, the user only needs to know their master password – that’s one password to remember instead of 191.
When all of your end users’ passwords are different for each account, you greatly reduce the risk of a data breach impacting your client, and by extension, you as an MSP. Password hygiene is an essential step for security, and you can make it easy with password management.
2. Waste less time on password reset tickets.
It happens to everyone – you can’t remember if your email password involved your French bulldog’s birthday or your cousin’s middle name (or was it the other way around?) and the sticky note you wrote it down on is nowhere to be found. Time to file a ticket with IT.
As an MSP, you’re well aware of how often this happens and how much of your techs’ bandwidth is being taken up by these tickets. In the world of IT, there’s nothing worse than having to spend time on a problem that could have been so easily avoided, especially when that time could be used for more pressing problems.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. By implementing password management, you reduce the amount of passwords that have to be remembered by each employee, therefore cutting down the volume of password reset tickets in your queue. With those out of the way, your techs are able to get more done, and at a more efficient pace. It’s a win-win for you and your clients.
3. Make it even easier with single sign-on (SSO).
Single sign-on allows users to sign into multiple different apps or accounts at once. It’s a great technology that lets users spend less time typing in or retrieving different passwords to get into the apps they need for work.
When coupled with password management, SSO provides the ultimate seamless login experience – even fewer passwords, fewer login portals, and less time setting up apps. Through pre-integrations with leading applications, end users can be set up with everything they need for their role. And as an MSP, you can use SSO to make managing access to different apps easier.
Unfortunately, not all password management solutions also offer SSO, so be sure to look for one that does.
4. Bolster security with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Multi-factor authentication is another feature that can provide extra value from your password management solution. With MFA, you can require users to submit additional verification when they log in, usually by using a different device.
This provides an extra layer of security to your whole system. With MFA enabled, cyberattackers are less likely to gain access, even if they have the correct username and password. As long as they can’t verify the login attempt via the separate device, the attempt will be denied.
Adding MFA to your password management is crucial protection. Should someone have their master password exposed, MFA can prevent their password vault from being accessed.
5. Minimize administrative hassle.
Managing passwords for all your clients and all of their end users can be difficult. If you’re making do with spreadsheets, you should know that the whole process can be much, much easier.
The right password management solution can make managing your clients’ passwords as simple as can be. Ideally, your solution will let you view, manage, and access end users passwords from a single pane of glass to maximize visibility. It should also offer password management, SSO, and MFA all in one comprehensive solution.
Get It All with LastPass
Wondering which solution can give you all these benefits and more? Well, wonder no more.
LastPass was designed specifically for MSPs with best in-class tools that simplify the password experience at every level. In addition to its intuitive password management system, LastPass offers MFA and SSO with 1,200+ pre-integrated applications.
On the administrative side, LastPass allows techs to easily navigate between clients’ sub-accounts and add or remove seats. It also provides monthly billing options.
If you’re looking for password management that will please your clients, alleviate your headaches, and allow your business to grow through new revenue streams, look no further than LastPass.
