2022 saw a record high number of data breaches and cybersecurity attacks in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). The Australian Information Commissioner revealed that there was a stark 67% increase in the number of attacks during the second half of the year compared to the first, with the health and finance sectors experiencing the biggest jump.

Earlier this year, New Zealand saw one of the biggest data breaches the country had ever faced, with over one million driver’s licence and passports exposed as part of an attack on Latitude Financial.

Poor cybersecurity practices are a huge factor in the rise in attacks, but there are a few steps that can be taken to mitigate risk.

Human error can be avoided with single sign-on

While phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks were among the most commonly employed methods, many sources say they were exacerbated by human errors that made organisations more vulnerable to assault. At least one quarter of the 497 successful breaches that occurred in 2022 were attributed to human error.

If nothing else, this worrying trend highlights the urgent need for businesses in the region to implement more airtight cybersecurity measures. As Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese emphasised, “Strengthening Australia’s cybersecurity is a fundamental priority.”

As regulations tighten and punitive costs skyrocket, is there a cost-effective and efficient manner for organisations to bolster their compliance and data security?

The winning combination of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and Single Sign On (SSO)

To protect sensitive data and stay ahead of threats, organisations should consider more robust security solutions that mitigate human error while defending against malicious attacks.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) has been a stalwart of ensuring customer privacy for years. By requiring that authorised users enter a secondary one-time password (OTP) to access their accounts, 2FA has been shown to effectively block 99.9% of modern automated attacks and 81% of hacking-related breaches associated with weak or stolen passwords.

Single sign on (SSO) has also become increasingly useful for companies to deter cyber-attacks. SSO allows employees, partners, and customers to access multiple services and platforms with (as the name implies) a single sign on, eliminating the need for repeated logins and different passwords, effectively decreasing the surface area for malicious actors to target.

While effective on their own, 2FA and SSO together provide even greater security and compliance benefits, especially in light of remote work and an increasingly hybrid network of cloud-based business apps.

Strengthen your compliance

With SSO, organisations are able to enforce consistent password policies across all their apps and services, reducing the risk of password-related breaches. When bolstered by 2FA’s added layer of security, unauthorised users now have an extra checkpoint to pass before they can gain access to sensitive data.

The combination of both helps businesses meet stringent compliance requirements related to data access control, a critical component of the Privacy Act. SSO in particular allows organisations to assign data access based on a user’s specific role, department, and security clearance level, rather than relying on broad-stroke “department-level” or generic “admin user” accounts. This eases the workload for IT departments and expedites change as it ensures that access is added and removed without delay.

In the unfortunate event of a data breach, businesses that implement both SSO and 2FA are in a better position to demonstrate that they have taken proactive steps to protect their sensitive user data and comply with privacy regulations.

Reduce your exposure risk in the event of attacks

By providing greater visibility over user activity, SSO makes it easier for organisations to comprehensively track user activity across multiple applications and services, thereby limiting risk exposure.

This improves organisational ability to monitor unauthorised access to sensitive data or other suspicious activity, essentially shortening the time required to identify a potential data breach and respond proactively to security incidents with minimal impact on operations.

Lower your IT costs while boosting productivity

Imagine only having to log in once for all-day, across-the-board access to all your business platforms. Not only will your experience be frictionless, you’ll also be saved from the fatigue of having to remember and enter multiple different passwords for all your productivity apps.

And SSO isn’t limited to just an organisation’s employees—third-party partner access can also be streamlined. Instead of wasting time onboarding partners onto multiple platforms with different credentials, just a single sign-on is needed to connect a third-party to their own identity system, complete with customised access and authorisations.

All this equates to less strain on your IT team, as they have to deal with fewer login-related issues. It’s also been shown that SSO makes it 50% faster for users to adopt, log into, and use new apps.

Maximise compliance and data security with the power of SSO and 2FA

Staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and best practices for maximum protection against cyber threats has never been more business-critical. By employing the winning combination of SSO and 2FA, businesses in Australia and New Zealand are in a better position to improve visibility and control over user activity and access, especially across multiple applications and services. This can make a drastic difference when it comes to quickly identifying potential threats, proactively responding to data breaches, and putting a tighter lid on data security.

Reach out to our team today to learn more about how 8x8’s security and authentication services can help your organisation strengthen compliance and security, while lowering IT and operational savings.