Solving the Password Management Paradox: Defining the Problem and Reviewing the Four Best-Known Solutions

Jan 23, 2009 in IT - Security

Discover how to solve the need for security without burdening the worker with oppressive requirements.
Organizations need to protect their data and restrict access to enterprise resources to authorized users. However, most employees can not remember more than one or two strong passwords, so they won’t follow the policy, resulting in less network security and more requests to the help desk to reset lost passwords. This is what we refer to as the Password Management Paradox — the assertion that requiring too many strong passwords will actually decrease overall corporate security.

This paper reviews the challenge of password management and security, discusses the paradox of strong password policies, evaluates several possible solutions, and recommends a password management solution that is cost effective and easy to implement.