In March 2017, Netflix’s official Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) account tweeted "love is sharing a password."

Five years later, media reports created a furor, hinting that Netflix was considering ways to curtail password sharing with people beyond the main user’s household. 

But what Netflix has taken issue with now, and is trying to curtail, is the unauthorized and illegal sharing of passwords through password-sharing marketplaces run by bad actors, which it says costs the company more than $6 million in annual revenue loss.

The consequences of credential-related cyber crime could prove to be very expensive for organizations if the spate of reported incidents is anything to go by. 

Microsoft reported a cyberattack by Chinese hacking group Hafnium, which targeted thousands of its servers across the United States and affected government agencies and businesses, exposing the email communications of each affected organization.

In a separate incident, U.S. government agencies were compromised in a series of nationwide attacks involving software from the cyber security firm SolarWinds where hackers reportedly exploited a vulnerability in its network monitoring software, allowing them to infiltrate companies that were using that software and gain access to their email communications. 

Cybercriminals apparently had access to GoDaddy’s systems for over two months before they were detected and their access blocked, by which time considerable damage had already been done.

Rising Cyber Crime Could Be Driving Companies’ Focus Toward Identity And Access Management

User credentials are the entry point to an organization’s data, and securing the network and access to data has become a top priority for businesses in the highly digital world.

More organizations are moving away from password-based solutions to biometric authentication.  

Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) provides a type of authentication that verifies the actual identity of the individual behind the keyboard, and BIO-key says its world-class biometric platform integrates into its customers’ Identity and Access Management (IAM) strategy.

It boasts decades of expertise in the field and claims it has a proven track record of successful Identity & Access Management (IAM) project delivery and strong customer relationships in financial services, healthcare, education, manufacturing, communication, transportation, and government. 

BIO-key says its signature product — PortalGuard® IDaaS (Identity-as-a-Service) — has flexible single sign-on and various authentication options to meet the security goals of most modern organizations to deliver an optimized user experience.

Features the company says make PortalGuard an attractive access management solution include:

To learn more about BIO-key’s biometric solutions visit the company webpage.

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Featured photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash