Password Management & customer service

Password is the most common method for users to authenticate themselves when entering computer systems or websites. It acts as the first line of defense against unauthorized access, and it is therefore critical to maintain the effectiveness of this line of defense by rigorously practicing a good password management policy.

Password-based consumer authentication was initially designed for employees, not customers or clients. User experience was not a concern. Today, in the age of fingerprint readers and facial recognition, people expect a seamless customer experience, and passwords are becoming a key factor in poor customer retention rates. Furthermore, from setup to reset and decommission, password management is costing companies millions of dollars per year. 

If a password manager service isn’t easy for consumers to use, it defeats the purpose of using it. User-friendly services make it easy for even the least computer literate users to store and retrieve passwords. 

From the user's perspective, memorizing one single password is easier than managing multiple passwords, even if the single password is a complicated one. In addition, if only one password is enough to authenticate all systems, there is higher awareness among users in protecting their passwords. However, using a single password for all systems might not be technically feasible, in particular on legacy systems, or across multiple operating system platforms. 

Effective password management and user authentication means improved security, usability, audit-readiness and regulatory compliance for your customer-facing web app. 

If you’re responsible for developing or managing a customer-facing web app, you’re faced with determining the best means to ensure your web app addresses the critical password management and user access functionality to allow the necessary security, usability, audit-readiness and regulatory compliance you need. And you need to accomplish this in a manner that does not slow down your development efforts or increase costs. 

If you do not make the right decisions regarding the critical password and user access management needs of your customer-facing web app, you will potentially be faced with a number of key risks, such as: 

1. Lengthening your development schedule, placing critical application development deadlines at risk while extending your time-to-market  

2. Going live with a customer-facing web app that does not provide ample levels of security for user access, risking potentially critical security breaches or other access issues  

3. Frustrating your customers (users) with complex and/or ineffective password self-service functionality that increases calls to your help desk for assistance (potentially overwhelming your help desk staff)  

4. Reducing audit-readiness that leads to low-mark or failing audit scores 5. Regulatory non-compliance 

Authentication is the entry point to an online service. Password less authentication replicates how people in the real world recognize one another by using techniques such as biometrics, based on inherent physical attributes or who we are. It is customer-centric and eliminates issues such as the common struggle of typing complex passwords on a foreign keyboard. In the near future, users will be able to authenticate onto any platform via the devices they carry with them everywhere. Ultimately, an enhanced user-centric experience also results in stronger security, as users are much less likely to try circumventing cumbersome processes. 

The parameters of authentication are much broader than passwords alone. Accurate and reliable authentication is the essential foundation of digital trust. It is an enabler of cybersecurity in the digital economy and of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In other words, passwordless authentication is an enabler of the future.