Secure Access Passwordless Authentication - Simplifying Application Access for All Clinical Trials
In a study conducted at the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS) Global Summit, 76% of site users questioned stated their top technology software challenge was too many passwords and logins. These clinical site professionals work on 11+ studies concurrently, requiring 11+ systems. They typically need to reset their passwords 3 to 5 times per month. With this volume of activity, passwords clearly become a major source of frustration for site users as it slows down productivity. This environment also creates a significant security concern for their IT departments as it can increase vulnerability to breaches and hackers.
According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), credential vulnerabilities account for over 84% of all data breaches. Eliminating passwords diminishes the risk of breach caused by stolen, default or weak credentials. As a result, the demand for passwordless authentication continues to gain momentum. To address this demand, Exostar built passwordless authentication into its Secure Access Manager (SAM) product.
Solution
Secure Access Passwordless Authentication provides the Life Sciences community a seamless, secure login experience – without requiring any passwords. It validates a user’s identity with something other than a traditional password or security questions. Instead, Secure Access Passwordless Authentication will rely on proof-of-possession factors like biometrics, security keys, hardware tokens, and one-time passcodes to validate the clinical user’s identity and access permissions to assets throughout the Exostar Life Sciences community.
Once a SAM user enables the passwordless authentication feature, they have the option to use it for every authentication challenge, unless the target application specifically requires two factor authentication (2FA).
Why It’s Important
Clinical site users need a simple, secure process to quickly access critical applications across all trials and all sponsors. As a community shared service, Exostar provides a consistent user experience for all SAM users by eliminating the password burden.
Saying goodbye to passwords improves user productivity and satisfaction, as well as the security of all parties and data, while simultaneously reducing the costs and overhead associated with password management.
Why Exostar
Implementing passwordless authentication can prove challenging, especially when you are dealing with large volumes of users, a significant number of apps, and time sensitive research trials. Exostar enables Secure Access to critical business applications for our highly regulated Life Sciences community comprised of sponsors, clinical trials sites, CROs, investigators, academia, and others. Today, our Life Sciences community includes eleven of the top twenty global biopharmaceutical companies, more than 20,000 organizations, and over 500,000 users worldwide. These sponsors and their clinical partner networks rely on the Exostar community to help them gain access to speed new medicines and therapies to market. Come join our rapidly-growing Life Science community today – your partners likely already belong, and we can easily enable our passwordless solution to ensure you get connected and productive quickly.
To find out more about Secure Access Passwordless Authentication, visit our website or contact us at exostar.com/contact.
- 84% of all data breaches are attributable to credential vulnerabilities (Verizon Data Breach Report 2021)
- $70 each: Average cost for an enterprise to reset a single password (Forrester Report December 2021)
Benefits
Improves Usability
Alleviates the clinical site user’s pain of struggling to remember or writing down every password needed to access required clinical study apps in favor of “one touch” authentication
Strengthens Security and Mitigates Risk
Eliminates risky password management, reduces credential theft and other password-related vulnerabilities to cyberattacks
Reduces Administrative Burden
Lowers the volume of service desk, contact center calls and/or support tickets clinicians or site users must submit to IT for password resets