The Adoption of Single Sign-On and Multifactor Authentication in Organisations: A Critical Evaluation Using TOE Framework

Abstract

The proliferation of user credentials for system access coupled with the resulting rising security threats have led to the development of single sign-on (SSO) access control and multi-factor authentication (MFA) technologies.This paper provides an overview of these authentication mechanisms, highlighting the current state in the marketplace and describing the key enabling technologies.We conducted a qualitative analysis to identify the key factors facilitating and inhibiting the adoption of SSO and MFA by organisations using the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework.The resulting analysis indicates a range of technologies, protocols and configurations that can be employed depending on the type of authentication and level of security required.The findings suggest that a number of technology, organisation and environment factors both positively and negatively affect organisational adoption of SSO and MFA.There are a number of key benefits gained from adopting SSO and MFA such as increased corporate security and reduced organisational costs of managing access control.There are also a number of key challenges to be overcome by organisations adopting SSO and MFA.These include the ability to accommodate the complexity of multiple heterogeneous systems and to be resilient to new information security threats thereby allowing a SSO and MFA solution to deliver improved and secure access control to information systems both within and across organisations.

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