The Achilles’ Heel of Enterprise Security: User-Controlled Access Credentials
February 11, 2025
Brenda Sorenson, EVP Corporate Communications
The burden of securing access can no longer fall on employees and customers. As cyberattacks continue to evolve in sophistication and scale, the time for half-measures has passed. Enterprise risk demands a new security platform and credentials that are controlled by the organization, not its users.
When users are granted control over credential management, they are unwittingly transformed into the most significant vulnerability in an organization’s defense. Users consistently select the path of least resistance when creating and managing credentials. They reuse passwords, choose simple authentication methods, and often lack the expertise to implement more advanced methods. Users are targeted by phishing attacks, social engineering, and other tactics designed to exploit their control over credentials. Organizations can implement training programs to raise awareness, however, these efforts have proven insufficient to address the sophistication of modern attacks.
When users are granted control over credential management, they are unwittingly transformed into the most significant vulnerability in an organization’s defense.
In this post, we will discuss the vulnerabilities in credentials—passwords, passkeys, multi-factor authenticators, biometrics—that give the control of access to users, and explain how a platform and credential designed for security returns control to the organization.
The Absence of Security
Today, organizations are largely dependent on the access protocols integrated into software and applications—including cybersecurity platforms—that require users to create and manage their own access credentials. They set up their own passwords, receive SMS-based multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes on personal devices, register devices for passkeys, and capture their own biometrics for device unlock and device-based authentication. This shifts the burden to users and introduces significant vulnerabilities, representing a dangerous attack surface that threatens organizations
The burden of securing access should not fall on employees and customers.
The Perils of Passwords
Passwords represent the most fundamental vulnerability. Passwords are often reused across multiple platforms, are easily guessable, or are based on personal information that can be readily discovered through social engineering. This creates a domino effect in which a single compromised credential can potentially unlock multiple sensitive accounts. These credentials become entry points for large-scale systematic breaches that can devastate organizational infrastructure.
Passkeys: Convenient but a New Security Weakness
Passkey-based authentication, a more recent type of access credential, also presents a significant threat vector. Passkeys eliminate the need for traditional passwords by relying on cryptographic keys stored on user devices, but this convenience comes at a cost. For any device-based access, the main challenge lies in the control over devices. Passkey systems rely on users to register devices and manage authentication tokens, creating opportunities for compromise. Stolen or unsecured devices grant attackers direct access, while users may unknowingly register devices in unsafe environments or generate passkeys for phishing sites. Poor backup practices can result in account lockouts, prompting insecure recovery methods that are vulnerable to exploitation. The design inherent in passkeys transforms each user into a potential breach point, risking the integrity of the entire authentication ecosystem.
Each user becomes a potential point of failure, with the ability to compromise not just their own access but the integrity of the entire enterprise.
Multi-Factor Authentication: Strong in Theory, Weak in User Hands
Multi-factor authentication (MFA), despite its reputation for enhanced protection, carries inherent risks when users manage the additional authentication factors. Users typically receive and control secondary methods like one-time codes sent via SMS, email, or authenticator apps. This user-controlled process creates multiple potential vulnerability points. Attackers can intercept codes through SIM swapping, phishing, device compromise, or social engineering. Users accidentally forward authentication codes, store them insecurely, or fail to recognize sophisticated phishing attempts designed to capture these secondary credentials. Hackers have become increasingly adept at redirecting these authentication messages, rendering what seems like a robust security measure surprisingly fragile.
As cyber-attacks continue to evolve in sophistication and scale, the time for half-measures has passed.
User-Controlled Biometrics: A Security Blind Spot for Enterprises
Biometric authentication, while convenient, poses serious risks when used as a primary device unlock method in enterprises. It verifies access, not intent, failing to distinguish between legitimate and malicious users. With full control over their devices, users dictate authentication, creating exploitable vulnerabilities. Stored locally, biometric data limits enterprise oversight, preventing quality control, resets, or revocations. Users may also register unauthorized individuals, bypassing security policies. If an attacker gains access or fraudulently registers a device, they receive the same privileges as the rightful user, putting sensitive data and accounts at risk.
The Big Picture
The fundamental problem of user-controlled access credentials goes beyond individual behavior—organizations are effectively outsourcing critical responsibilities to those least equipped to manage them. Each user becomes a potential point of failure, with the ability to compromise not just their own access but the integrity of the entire enterprise.
The Importance of Security and Control
With cyberattacks poised to surge, one thing is clear: the era of user-controlled credentials must end. Relying on users as the last line of defense is a critical flaw that has put enterprises at risk.
The TASCET Security Platform introduces security that has not previously existed. We enable organizations to control the credentials used by employees, customers, and partners to access systems and data. This removes the burden—and threats—of user controlled credentials.
With TASCET, security begins when individuals are onboarded as employees, customers, and contractors. Our Security Platform ensures each user has a single unique identity within the organization and the industry, without relying on the personal information or ID documents they present. This powerful capability enables organizations to prevent the use of multiple and synthetic identities and stop fraud, employee imposters, impersonation, duplicate IDs, credential sprawl, and more. Each user is linked to a Security Credential that is controlled and confirmed by the organization, and is immune to sharing, theft, and brute force attacks.
Security is the organization’s responsibility—not its users’. TASCET gives organizations across industries the tools to take control, implementing protocols for security that will prevent ransomware, data breaches, insider attacks, and cybercrime.
