1Password's Extended Access Management aims to secure modern workforces

The work landscape has changed enormously in recent years with hybrid and remote working now becoming the norm. This makes it harder for businesses to secure their systems as there's no longer a clearly defined network perimeter.

1Password now has an Extended Access Management feature that helps organizations to secure every sign-in to every application from every device.

Features include securing devices by monitoring device health in real-time to identify and remediate device compliance issues before permitting access, even for bring-your-own devices and contractors.

Enterprise password management securely stores and shares credentials and sensitive information -- from logins and SSH keys to credit cards -- with 1Password's enterprise password manager. In addition universal sign-on extends single sign-on (SSO) to every application and website to reduce risk and secure every authentication, no matter how users sign in.

There's also contextual access management which applies policies to block access to apps on unhealthy devices and guide end users through self-remediation to regain access quickly.

"When I think about security, two of the hardest things to tackle are access management and getting people to do the secure thing," says Steve Won, CPO of 1Password. "So if we have more tools to actually automate security and make high trust between users and devices, everything will be more intuitive. To a certain extent, you will no longer need APIs if you take the same actions within a GUI on behalf of the user."

The company is also keen for businesses and consumers to adopt passkey technology. Won adds, "Even though 'password' is in our name, we want people to use passkeys. This year, we'll be hiring more people to continue working on passkeys specifically; We know it's a better user experience and it's a better security model as well."

Additional beta features coming to Extended Access Management in fall 2024 include user identity to secure the workforce by managing the entire lifecycle of end-user identity from provisioning user access to off-boarding. Plus application visibility to secure all applications by providing IT and security teams visibility into the use of unmanaged applications, including shadow IT, in their businesses, enabling them to take newly discovered applications from unseen to managed.

1Password's VP of EMEA Oliver Cheal says, "1Password seeks to address what we call the 'Access Trust Gap.' We want businesses to be able to know employees are using secure credentials on secure devices, and accessing applications that their IT and security teams know about. In our experience, for every device a company knows about, there's at least one device that they don’t know about. On top of that, there’s also a large number of shadow IT applications that employees are using that businesses can’t see. 1Password Extended Access Management provides businesses with this visibility so they can take control of and address this challenge."

You can find out more on the 1Password blog.

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