Social Logins in Corporate Networks
Can you imagine logging into your corporate network via your Facebook or Twitter account? How about being able to print the latest sales report at the office with your Linkedin, Instagram or Google credentials?
You might be wondering what corporate networks are coming to, sheer madness?, Not at all, this is an innovative project IT shops evaluate to leverage the power of authentication that cloud and social media providers can offer. To be precise, the term would be "social federated identity for corporate networks" but simply put sounds better: social login.
Believe it or not, the days of corporate usernames and passwords are destined to recede gradually. Look at this recent article on leMagIT (french website for IT professionals)
GDF Suez déploie un bus de sécurité unique pour ses applications ( GDF deploys a proprietary security bus for applications)
At the end of the article, GDF reportedly studies the adoption of social logins into their corporate networks. So, why all of this effort? What are the benefits?
First and foremost, social logins are the natural response to the shift of trust from institutional and corporate to peer trust networks. This begs the question as to whether companies are culturally prepared to move ahead on this shift and seize the opportunities of the new sharing economy in which, maximum collaboration is incompatible with classic identity management systems (what we currently type everyday, that is corporate usernames and passwords).
Secondly, mobility keeps pushing up really hard. Companies perceive the importance of mobility as employees increasingly use their phones as secondary or even primary connected devices!. So what is the point for corporate IT shops in reinventing the wheel of mobile app authentication?
Last but not least, to reduce complexity. Employees abhor having to remember multiple usernames and passwords for everything they do at work. Social logins can keep authentication pretty easy for them and thus improve their experience although an extra layer of security must be in place (either multifactor from Google Authenticator, Facebook, Twitter or any other external identity management provider)
Are you in favour of social logins in corporate environments?
Do you think social logins are a smart move? What can be the new risks?
Alvaro Martin
@varomartin