In industries that require shift-based workforce, like retail and manufacturing, sharing user accounts are a common solution for employees who need quick access to critical systems, especially during fast-paced handovers between shifts.
However, the use of shared accounts in an organization’s environment should be a warning sign for the security team. From cash registers and point-of-sale (POS) systems in retail chains to operational technology (OT) systems in manufacturing plants, shared accounts expose organizations to severe security risks which can result in data breaches and sensitive data leakage.
In this blog, we will highlight the unique security challenges that organizations with shop and factory floor workforces face with shared accounts. Afterwards, we will show how Silverfort’s native integration with FIDO2 tokens adds an additional layer of security and offers employees a seamless authentication process to login to critical systems.
Why Shared Accounts Are a Security Weak Spot for Shift-Based Workforces
Shared accounts in shift-based organizations create complex challenges, primarily due to the need for credential sharing. Employees often share their user credentials, especially in fast-paced retail and manufacturing environments where personal accounts aren’t practical.
This hinders efforts to track individual users’ activities, increasing the risks of exposed passwords, almost guaranteed misuse and credential compromise, that is just a matter of time. Without individual accountability, organizations are exposed to insider theft or supply chain attacks.
In addition, shared accounts are always one of the weakest parts of identity security posture. Once compromised they allow attackers to move laterally across the environment or escalate privileges with minimal detection. Unauthorized entry into a retail POS system or manufacturing OT system could lead to potential operational disruptions, system malfunctions, or costly downtime. Without enabling strict access control policies, ensuring only authorized users have legitimate access to the systems is a significant challenge.
How Silverfort Secures Shared Accounts with FIDO2 MFA Integration
Silverfort’s native FIDO2 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enables organizations that use FIDO2 keys to apply an extra layer of security for user accounts and critical systems. With Silverfort’s FIDO2 integration, organizations can apply token-based authentication on shared accounts to ensure only authorized team members have access to critical systems. By adding MFA to the authentication process, the risk of credential compromise and unauthorized access is reduced.
In addition, Silverfort provides complete visibility into shared accounts and tracks all user access attempts, making it possible to monitor individual activity within a shared environment. With Silverfort’s real-time monitoring capabilities, organizations gain a comprehensive log of all authentication activities, making it easier to detect potential security threats and ensure shared account access is secure and fully auditable.
Let’s see how Silverfort helps shift-based industries create secure spaces within their shared environments.
Visibility Into Shared Accounts
Silverfort helps to identify shared accounts automatically and provides real-time visibility into all user activity. With Silverfort, you can detect and respond to malicious activities much faster, including blocking access of any accounts that display suspicious activity.
In Silverfort’s Insights Page, you will gain actionable information about all protected domains (users and resources) and a high-level view of your organization’s security posture. In the Users & Passwords section, you can get visibility into all shared accounts in your environment. These accounts are detected by analyzing access attempts from multiple devices and servers at the same time and flagging that they could be shared by separate human users.
By clicking on the Shared Accounts icon, you will be able to see all the details in the pop-up window. With the names of these shared accounts, you can export them for future in-depth analysis or investigate one by one with policies enforcement, including deleting or applying deny access policies to shared accounts.
Creating MFA Policy for Shared Accounts Protection
To prevent any unauthorized user access to a shared account, we recommend you create a specific policy that triggers MFA when a user requests access. This will add an additional level of protection to your critical resources, since shared accounts often have many permissions as they are used in different contexts.
- Enter Silverfort’s Policies screen and click “Create a new policy”.
- Choose your IdP in the Auth Type section and check necessary authentication protocol – Kerberos/NTLM or LDAP(s).
- Static-based policy should be applied as a Policy Type and specific Shared Account user should be chosen in User and Groups section, whose access you would like to trace based on your business needs.
- Choose MFA as the Action and then select FIDO2 token among other options.
- Additionally, in the Advanced Options section you could choose Policy Restrictions, where you can set whether this policy should be applied always or only during specific times or days.
- In the MFA Frequency section, you should select parameters to determine how often MFA requests are sent to the user (Require MFA), including previous MFA attempt (From) and the user, device or resource for which the previous MFA was performed (According To).
Once this policy is set, it will trigger MFA during the authentication process to chosen shared accounts. Even if this shared account was compromised, this policy would set MFA as an additional security measure with FIDO2 token set up, prompting the user to approve access request.
Using FIDO2 Tokens in Silverfort Authentication Policies
Silverfort supports the use of any FIDO2 tokens to approve MFA requests for protected users, including shared accounts. When a user attempts to access critical resource, a push request is sent to the user’s machine, and the user is prompted to insert their FIDO2 key to verify their identity and approve the MFA request.
Enabling Real-Time Protection for Securing Shared Accounts in Shift-Based Industries
With shared accounts becoming a common security risk in shift-based environments, applying FIDO2 tokens can significantly enhance concrete security controls across users and resources. By gaining visibility into every user access attempt and applying strict authentication policies, Silverfort enables organizations to minimize the risk of unauthorized access and credential misuse. This ensures critical systems remain highly protected, even in high-turnover and shift-based workforces.
Looking to enforce advanced identity security controls across your environments? Schedule a call with one of our experts.