Banks and others accounting for BYOD

Banks and credit unions, like many other non-financial organizations, are quickly realizing the benefits of implementing bring your own device (BYOD), primarily because of the many benefits that BYOD provides both the organization and its employees. Of course, a main benefit that financial institutions see from implementing BYOD is lower costs associated with purchasing a large number of computers or tablets. Employees are able to bring and use their own devices and register them with the company’s network.

Most of this kind of technology is current only for a short period of time and then becomes obsolete, in need of replacement or vulnerable to attack because of out of date operating systems and software. By allowing employees to bring and use their own devices in the workplace, they are able to ensure their own technology is up to date without the organization constantly incurring the costs for new devices and upgrades. An additional benefit is that end users are most comfortable with using their own devices—which can translate to more efficient workers—and saves financial institutions from the need to provide any user or system training.

Though BYOD may lower costs of technology and increase productivity (that’s always been the BYOD argument), if not implemented correctly a BYOD program can easily turn into a mess of a headache for information technology, human resources and other departments because of security issues, which result in higher costs and vulnerabilities to organizations and can lead to an increase of internal time and support resources.

When BYOD is first implemented, IT must establish how it will address the influx of new devices being used within the company’s network. Of course, this can be extremely time consuming since each device has to be added to the network manually. This also affects HR since they’ll be in charge of managing the provisioning and user account set up for each of these devices.

If not handled correctly, BYOD can lead to numerous security risks. Since the employee owns the device, once they leave the organization they keep their device, allowing them to potentially continue accessing company data. Companies need to ensure that when an employee leaves they no longer have access to the organization’s network and data, simple as that.

Because of these potential issues, one of the most important success factors often discussed about implementing BYOD is setting rules and criteria for employees using their own devices. By establishing a policy from the beginning, employees will know exactly what is expected from them, alleviating the confusion about what is expected if they participate in the program. This also allows the organization to define any repercussions should employees misuse or take advantage of the use of the BYOD policy, as well as establish guidelines for how IT and HR should handle BYOD devices.

That said the following are the bare minimum criterion that should be placed in any BYOD policy.

Set guidelines for the types of devices allowed
One of the top issues with BYOD is that there are many different types, brands and operating systems for the multitude of devices that have flooded the market. When employees register their device with the company, they then expect the IT department to support it and resolve any issues with it, which can result in a technical nightmare. Each bank, credit union or financial institution needs to determine from the outset which types and brands of devices are going to be supported.

Establish a process for disabling users
Allowing employees to use their own devices can lead to a security risk once the employee is no longer with the company. Organizations need a system in place to ensure that once the employee leaves, their account is automatically disabled. Many credit unions and banks use an automated account management solution that allows managers to easily disable the user from all systems and applications with just one click, ensuring that the network stays secure.

Security for compliance and audit needs
It is important that the organization ensures that BYOD also meets audit and compliance needs. The organization needs a system for recording any actions and keeping access records. Identity and access management solutions can help the organization ensure that its device users only have access to the systems and applications they are supposed to. This information can then also be easily accessed when it comes to audit time.

By properly ensuring the BYOD policy for the organization and end user from the beginning, banks and credit unions can hopefully avoid the many issues that can occur along the way. This allows them to receive the full benefits of implementing BYOD at their organization.

For more information, please visit our website, www.tools4ever.com .

Virtual Desktops: Healthcare’s Next Highly Unsecure Convenience

Virtual desktops have a place, and they can be very useful for a number of environments across a number of sectors. They allow for a variety of users to log in and work from a single computer or work station, allowing the user to interface with his or her systems in a virtualized environment — which is stored on a remote server rather than on a local machine – but these environments separate the physical machine from their software and present an isolated operating system for users.

Therefore, the use of virtual desktops is fairly common in healthcare as hospitals continue to seek solutions that create efficiencies; in this case, an environment where doctors are moving from room to room and need to work from different computers in different locations.

While virtual desktops as a concept can be beneficial to an organization, if used alone they can produce a variety of issues and limitations for those using them. For example, using hospital employees as an example again, as a group they tend to move from work station to work station frequently, logging into their applications and systems on a variety of workstation and switching between computers. Do so each time an employee switches computers is a major inconvenience, not to mention time consuming. Further, new and ever-changing regulations may prohibit the use of any type of shared account commonly found in a virtual desktop environment. For this reason, this is why many organizations have realized that the benefits of a virtual desktop can be made even greater if used in conjunction with a single sign-on or other automated access management solution.

The use of the virtual desktop continues to grow, however. As proof, in a 2012 study conducted by Spiceworks, more than 60 percent of organizations said they planned to roll out or evaluate desktop virtualization in the near term. Many also have or want to implement a single sign-on solution in conjunction with virtual desktops. The reasons for this are many.

Easy Movement

In healthcare, especially, clinicians need quick access to their computers and work stations. While a virtual desktop allows them the ability to easily move around to different rooms on their rounds, there’s usually quite a bit of wasted time because caregivers need to repeatedly log in to numerous applications. Anything that slows down the log in process can have a negative impact on patient care. Single sign-on solutions mitigate this issue, allowing end users the ability to provide their access credentials a single time and automatically be authenticated each time a program is launched. So, when an employee moves to another workstation in the hospital, they simply need to enter only one set of credentials and have access to everything they need to perform their jobs from that point for the remainder of their shift. 

Government Regulation

Another issue that many healthcare organizations may face in with virtual desktop environment is that employees often have share accounts on them, which can lead to HIPAA violations. Of course, HIPAA requires that healthcare organizations show exactly who has access to secure data, as well as ensures that this data is protected and kept safe. Additionally, health systems also must track who exactly is accessing secure and protected information and who is entering a system or retrieving information and making changes to the data, including patient information. 

Because of this, hospitals must eliminate all shared accounts to determine who is making changes where and to what information in the record. Single sign-on technology can assist with managing this process by allowing the users to use their own log in — which can be catalogued and tracked for auditing purposes — all the while only requiring them to remember a single set of access credentials. 

Increased Productivity

Another reason that health systems implement sing sign-on alongside their virtual desktops is because they have seen an increase in productivity overall. End users are able to quickly access what they need to complete their work, without needing to repeatedly log in to each system and application. For example, the log in process becomes even more of a hassle when a user forgets a password to one of his or her applications and is locked out of an account. Single sign-on applications make it much easier for users to remember their credentials, as previously discussed, since they only are required to know one set instead of several sets of complicated user names and passwords. This alone can save users a tremendous amount of time each day. 

Security

Lastly, single sign-on can make a virtual desktop more secure. The solution can be paired with two-factor authentication to add an additional layer of security. Two-factor authentication requires users to enter a PIN as well as present their access badge to access the computer or workstation. This ensures that the user is who they claim to be. 

Overall, virtual desktops, in conjunction with single sign-on, are able to help organizations protect their data, set parameters for who has access to it and meet the burden of regulation while also increasing organizational productivity including providing users with fast and secure, access to systems and applications used throughout the workday; especially important to those providing care to patients.

For more information, please visit our website - www.tools4ever.com . 

5 Ways to Know You Need an IAM Solution

Implementing an identity and access management solution scares many organizations’ IT leaders and their CEOs for a variety of reasons. Though doing so does cost money, the expense of doing so is probably not as much as if saved because of resulting employee efficiencies among other savings factors. Cost and investment are only a small factor to be considered.

Every organization must address password and account management issues. They can be overlooked, of course, and assigned to be managed by IT departments as they arise, but usually in every organization, there is a certain point where the problems created by poor access and identity management procedures interferes with productivity in an overwhelming fashion and begins to cost the organization unneeded time and money. That’s when it becomes a major issue.

So how do you know when it gets to this point and when your organization needs an IAM solution? The following are five ways that you know an IAM solution is needed to improve processes.

1. An abundance of calls to the helpdesk

Whether it is password or access issues, when your helpdesk is receiving an overload of calls each day, the amount of time spent managing the process and time wasted by employees to re-gain access to their accounts can have a devastating effect on the productivity of the end user. Contacting the helpdesk, staring a new ticket and solving the account and password issue is time consuming and an extreme annoyance when an end user is in the middle of something; especially if they are with a customer at the time they are locked out.

2. Full-time employee for account management

Many organizations need to hire a full-time employee just to handle provisioning accounts and making account changes. If this is a full-time position at your company it is because you are handling the account management process manually, which is time consuming and prone to error, not to mention, it is very expensive to hire someone to do these manual tasks full time.

3. Employees don’t have all their accounts created on first day of employment

If you have employees who, on their first day of employment, cannot start working because of lack of access to the systems and applications they need, this is shows an inefficient process. It usually takes up to a week for a new employee to have all the correct access they need, which is a monumental loss of productivity, time and money.

4. Users are accidentally left active after they are no longer with the organization

Often, when employees leave an organization, disabling their accounts is overlooked and they are left active on the organization’s network. Though this is easy to overlook, it can create a security risk. Once an employee leaves, their access should automatically be disabled so they are no longer able to retrieve anything in the organization’s network.

5. Each system or application has different employee information

If each of your organization’s systems and applications has different employee information, this can be a difficult environment to manage, especially when trying to keep all data in sync. Each system needs to have the most current and correct employee information. When an employee gets married and changes their last name, for example, changing this information in each system can take a great deal of time and easily be overlooked.

Are any of these happening at your organization? If your organization deals with one or more of these issues, you may benefit from an IAM solution. So, even though implementing the solution can be scary, the process is actually a lot easier than dealing with issues that are already occurring on a basis, and can save your organization time in the long run.

For more information, please visit our website - www.tools4ever.com . 

Access management for remote employees

Organizational IT leaders are most likely face a difficult decision related to allowing their employees to access company systems and information remotely or when working in a remote capacity. They are likely aware of the many benefits, but they have a dilemma: As more employees work outside of the office, how are they able to effectively provide efficient solutions to managing this data.

Solutions have adapted over the years so that employers can better benefit employees who work outside of the office. For example, technology solutions like single sign-on and self-service password reset, were first just for employees who worked in a collective work environment, in an office setting, but now they can now benefit all employees within an organization no matter the location of the employee.

For employees who work outside the company’s network, a single sign-on solution provides a way for employees to log into an “SSO anywhere” solution. This allows users who are not physically connected to the company network and want to use SSO, to log in from home or another location using their Active Directory credentials. In this scenario, users only have to enter a combination of password and user name once. This automatically logs them into all applications and resources across the company network and in the cloud, without the need of logging in again.

In regard to self-service password resets, many types of these solutions now allow users to log in and reset their passwords if needed, from anywhere. They simply choose the “Forgot My Password” button from the company’s log on window or portal and are then able to securely reset their passwords after answering several security questions. No need to burden the internal company helpdesk with calls seeking assistance.

For users on the go who use a laptop that does not have a connection to the company’s network, they click on the “Forgot My Password” button that is provided on the log-in screen. The SSO solution then presents the same questions as the normal self-service password reset procedure (with network connection). After correctly answering the questions, users can then be automatically logged onto the machine. In addition, many self-service reset password solutions also are mobile-friendly for those using their mobile phone, tablet or other device.

So, while remote employees might not enjoy other benefits of working at the office — such as free coffee, in-person camaraderie and copies — they can still benefit from using the company’s solutions.

For more information, please visit our website: www.tools4ever.com .

Wild Ways People Remember Their Passwords, and Why Breaches Are Likely Because of Them

Everyone has done it, used some kind of wild way to remember user names and passwords. Let’s face it, the rules for managing passwords is overwhelming. People are required to remember numerous sets of credentials for all of the systems and applications they need to access their job and personal life, but it’s often too difficult to remember them all.

In addition, passwords often are required to be complex with several different symbols and characters, and they often need to be changed every month or so. Given all of the rules and parameters, how is anyone supposed to keep track, and remember, all of this information on top of all the work they need to complete, PIN codes they need to recall and every other detail that takes up much needed bandwidth?

How do most people remember their passwords? Chances are they keep all of their pass codes in some type of non-secure method to remember them. Given my line of work with clients facing complex password issues, I’ve witnessed many wild ways in which end users use to remember passwords. Frighteningly so, some people even believe that their methods for password “storage” are safe and don’t realize that they are actually putting their organizations at risk.

Though organizational leaders may think that requiring employees to use complex passwords that get changed often is making their network secure, reality is this is often counterintuitive and leads employees to user unsecure methods.

Here are just some of wildest ways I’ve seen people store their passwords:

1. Since employees feel they have to constantly login, many folks keep their credentials in front of them, written on Post-It notes, pasted to their computer screen in plain sight of passersby. That just makes it a lot easier for hackers to gain access to critical information.
2. Some people think that if they hide their passwords, this will keep their information more secure. Many employees, however, actually keep their password sheets in their desk drawer or under their keyboards, falsely assuming no one will just open the drawer or move the keyboard and take a peek.
3. Recently, one of our employees visited the doctor’s office and saw that the receptionist actually had her passwords listed on a recipe card atop the desk next to her monitor in clear view of everyone coming and going. Next to that card were instructions – step by step -- for accessing all of her accounts.
4. Some people even use an invention that they believe is helping them keep their passwords safe: A type of notebook that looks like a phone book allowing them to write down their passwords and organize them. Sure, this is good for organization, but what happens when someone finds the notebook and has access to all of the credentials?

Chances are, many employees in virtually every organization use these methods, but these strategies can cause security risks for any organization. Luckily, though, there are easy ways to stop employees from using such non-secure methods.

One way is with a simple single sign-on solution. An SSO allows employees to create a single set of credentials for all of their systems and applications, eliminating the need to write down passwords or use other non-secure methods for storing their information. Employees simply log in with their credentials and thereafter are authenticated in each of their applications automatically after they are launched.

So, while it may be funny to read how employees remember their passwords, it won’t be funny when your organization faces a security breach because of it.

For more information, please visit our website at www.tools4ever.com

How To Implement and Manage a BYOD Policy (and Keep IT Happy)

Implementing a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy for your organization can be extremely beneficial, but if not done correctly can also cause several problems. One of the main reasons that companies implement BYOD is to lower their costs associated with purchasing a large number of computers or tablets.

Many security issues can arise, as well as an increase in time spent by the IT department on setting up and monitoring all of the employee’s devices. Though BYOD may lower costs of technology, if not implemented correctly it can actually result in higher costs in areas such as the time and support from the IT department.

It’s important to correctly set up and manage your BYOD implementation right from the beginning.

Here are several ways your organization can get the most out of a BYOD policy while easily managing the risks:

Set Up a BYOD Policy From the Beginning:

Set Up Guidelines and Rules

By drawing up a set of rules right from the beginning, your employees will know exactly what’s expected from them, leaving little room for confusion. These rules will also allow the organization to define any repercussions if employees misuse or take advantage of the use of the BYOD policy.

Set Guidelines for the Types of Devices Allowed

One of the top issues with BYOD policies is that there are many different types, brands, operating systems, and more for devices.

When employees register their device with the company, they then expect the IT department to support it and resolve any issues with the device, which can be a headache for any IT department.

An organization needs to set, right from the beginning, which types and brands of devices they are going to support.

Implement a Mobile IAM Solution in Conjunction with BYOD

Easily Set Up and Manage Devices

In addition to all employee accounts, admins will now also have to set up and register all employee devices. In the beginning especially, there is a large influx of new devices that need to be added, which is extremely time consuming if it is done manually.

Mobile IAM solutions allow admins to easily add new devices by simply adding them in Active Directory. If desired, they can also allow users to register their devices themselves. End users simply fill out a web form that is set up for a work flow request, which will then be automatically be sent to the appropriate manager or department for approval.

Once the company decides which devices they are going to support, this can be set up in their mobile IAM solution. When a user then tries to register a device, only those that the company supports will be able to be registered.

Securing the Company’s Infrastructure

Since employees will keep their device once they leave the organization (because they own it!), there is the potential for them to have continued access company data.

Companies need to ensure that when an employee leaves they no longer have access to the company’s network and data. Though the solution seems simple–disable the user from the system and applications they have access to–this often, more times than not, goes unnoticed and the user remains active.

This is because IT needs to be notified of the employees leave and then manually disable them from all systems and applications individually. If an IAM solution is implemented, once an employee leaves the organization a manager can automatically disable the user’s access and deactivate their access to the network, ensuring the security of the company’s data.

By following these guideline organizations can hopefully gain the most out of BYOD while mitigating the risks that can potentially occur.


For more information, please visit our website - www.tools4ever.com

Reducing Organizational Costs by Eliminating Costly Mistakes

One of the major topics constantly on the minds of organizational leaders is, “How can I reduce costs?” Many times this is in terms of direct costs, such as employees and materials, as managers tend to look at employees’ salaries, materials, etc., used in day-to-day activities.

Frequently overlooked is the amount of time and money that goes into other aspects of running the business that cannot be physically seen. These include such things as the management of accounts, passwords, applications and other solutions. While not at first noticeable, these costs can add up, and there are ways in which expenditures can easily be reduced. If management and leaders sit down and actually add up how much it is costing them to manage employee accounts and passwords, the cost can be astonishing. Not only is the waste physical dollars, but can also be hours spent on processes that can be made more efficient.

The following are just a few of the common ways that an organization may be wasting money, as well as the actions that can be taken to easily reduce these cost wastes.

Account and Access Management Costs

Account and access management is a task that may be costing an organization more money than previously thought. In many cases, multiple staff members focus solely on provisioning, making changes and de-provisioning accounts throughout the year. Often, this is because these tasks are performed manually for each employee’s account, and while it is not difficult, they are extremely time-consuming tasks.

Frequently if there are a large number of employees beginning employment at a company, provisioning accounts in all the correct systems and applications for each employees can take hours. Then there is the issue of temporary or contract employees. Organizations who have employees who are only there for a short amount of time, and have frequent movement, spend much time provisioning, changing and de-provisioning these accounts. They need to ensure that these temporary employees have the access they need to perform their jobs while they are there, but then also that they are promptly disabled once they are no longer working for the company.

If there are full-time employees handling these account management actions, chances are they are highly experienced and trained and high-earning IT employees handing these task. Essentially, organizations are paying technical employees to perform these simple tasks.

In addition to the expenses of manual account management, access management may be costing organizations more money than is necessary. Between the provisioning, de-provisioning and movement of accounts, one item that tends to get overlooked is exactly who has access to what, who actually needs access to certain systems and applications and how many accounts are left active that need not to be. So, for example, companies may be paying for more license costs for an expensive application than are actually needed. Or even worse, they may be paying for accounts for people who no longer even work for the organization. These are all costs that might look minimal but when added up, are costing companies a substantial amount of money.




Password Management

Another major source of money waste is with the management of passwords. META Group research, conducted on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers, concluded that helpdesk tickets for password resets cost annually $60.93 per employee and 45 percent of all helpdesk calls are for password resets.

This doesn’t take into account the cost of time of employees who have to deal with password resets. Think about the time it takes for both the end user and the IT employee to reset a password.  Everyone is familiar with how annoying it is when they forget their password. You need to stop what you are doing to call the helpdesk, who in turn create a helpdesk ticket and manually reset your password. In addition to the annoyance, it has a negative impact on customer service if this happens to an employee when they are assisting one of your customers.

Though it is not a highly technical task, it takes time away from the both the end user and help desk employee, time which could be used doing something more productive.

Cost Saving Solutions

So how can these costs be reduced without a huge implementation of an expensive solution? First, let’s take a look at the account management issues. Something as simple as a solution that automates the account management process can save a great deal of money. By automating the account management process, highly technical staff no longer has to handle tasks that can easily be performed by other employees. The task can be easily delegated to a less technical helpdesk staff member or other employees in the company. With an automated account management solution, less technical employees can easily manage employee accounts using a secure form. They simply enter or make changes to an employee account in Active Directory, and the changes are automatically made in the connected systems and applications. Instead of having to manually create, change or disable accounts, the employee in charge of account management can just enter the information into the pre-set form so it is easier, and errors become less likely.

This is also beneficial when it comes to license costs. Instead of paying for accounts for employees that are no longer with the company, an automated account management solution allows you to simply check a box in the employee’s profile and all accounts are automatically disabled. Many solutions also provide an overview of access rights. This allows managers to see exactly who has access to what systems and applications to ensure they are paying for the correct number of licenses. If, say, there are any errors in access rights, an automated account management solution allows them to easily be corrected.

So what about the password resets? The easy solution to this is a self-service password reset solution.  Just like on many banking websites, numerous organizations have been implementing password reset solutions for their employees to use in the work setting. Employees simply enroll by providing answers to several challenge questions and when they need to reset a password the user simply provides the correct answer to the questions and are able to easily and securely reset their passwords without having to contact the IT department. This one small solution can save an organization hundreds or thousands of dollars each year, as well as alleviate many headaches for organizational leaders.

These simple solutions are both cost efficient and allow organizations to easily reduce costs for otherwise costly processes that often take up a large amount of time.

For more information, please visit our website; www.tools4ever.com