Many organizations are still relying on passwords and traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions to verify user identity. But authentication factors like passwords and one-time passwords are vulnerable to credential phishing and other forms of hacking. That’s because they rely on passing a shared secret known to both the user and the authenticating service provider.

Beyond Identity offers secure, phishing-resistant, and frictionless authentication by taking shared secrets out of the equation. Our FIDO2-certified solution uses public-private keys that can’t be shared or tampered with, so you can verify user identity and device security with high confidence. By replacing passwords with encrypted passkeys, Beyond Identity removes phishable factors from the authentication process, increases efficiency, and takes the pain out of the account recovery process. 

Fast and easy implementation

We know your IT team is busy. That’s why we built our platform to integrate quickly and seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, so you can simplify authentication and improve your security posture without spending too much time deploying the solution.

Deploying Beyond Identity is simple and requires no specialized training. Your SSO administrator can configure and integrate it in your environment quickly. In order to prepare your organization for deployment and ensure a smooth onboarding experience for your users, we recommend the following steps and best practices. 

1. Determine where you want to use passwordless authentication

First, you’ll need to define the scope of your deployment. What applications and endpoints do you want to transition to passwordless authentication? Common devices and apps include employee laptops and mobile devices, as well as enterprise business applications supporting modern authentication and single sign-on (SSO) solutions supporting SAML, OIDC or WS-FED. 

2. Define a test group

We encourage admins to start with a subset of users. When deploying the solution within a test group, you’ll need to assign selected users to that group and set expectations for feedback. Typically, the test group is the IT team or a subsection of the IT team already familiar with the tool. 

3. Integrate Beyond Identity with your SSO

Beyond Identity integrates with all major SSO solutions by acting as a delegated Identity Provider (IdP), so there’s no disruption to your underlying identity ecosystem and workflow. The solution’s presence on user devices allows you to authenticate securely, without passwords and without using a second device. As you integrate with your SSO, you can sync your directories using SCIM or other API connectors.

4. Integrate Beyond Identity with your security tools

Leveraging our ecosystem of cybersecurity partners and integrations helps you build a more complete security architecture adhering to the principles of defense-in-depth. You’ll be able to tie your organization’s critical security technologies to the authentication process and enforce your security policies more effectively. Beyond Identity integrates with industry-leading MDM, EDR, ZTNA, and SIEM solutions—including CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk, VMware Workspace ONE, and Zscaler—to enable risk-based access to your network.

5. Define your risk policy and user groups

Before you begin your rollout, it’s a good idea to make sure internal stakeholders are in sync on which security policies they want to put in place. We recommend your IT team meets with one of our deployment architects to discuss your organization’s needs. We can help you create an initial set of policy rules. Our policy engine is easily configurable and allows you to confirm a rule has the intended effect before you enforce it. 

6. Download the Authenticator and create your first passkey

After configuring Beyond Identity as an IDP, download the Authenticator and create your first passkey. Then you can add other users, who will receive an email invitation and they can finish the enrollment themselves. Once testing with the test group is complete, rollout for the rest of your organization can happen all at once or you can choose to deploy in a phased manner (on a group-by-group basis). We also recommend developing a transition plan for user enrollment. This usually includes communication prior to rollout and user training, so users know what to expect. 

We’re here to help you succeed

Our expert team is here to help you throughout the planning and deployment process. Post deployment, a dedicated customer success manager and our customer support teams are available to assist you and answer any technical queries. 

Beyond Identity goes beyond passwordless MFA. By maintaining a presence on each device, and analyzing a variety of risk signals, we provide high-confidence identity verification. This gives you the highest level of assurance that only authorized users and devices that meet your security posture policies can access your company resources. 

By ending your reliance on passwords, you’ll be able to stop credentials from being stolen and prevent data breaches from happening. 

Want to see passwordless authentication in action? Book a demo today.