Introduction
Every worker faces the authentication challenges of complex password requirements (character count limits, upper/lower case, numbers, odd characters), 2FA (2-factor authentication), MFA (multi-factor authentication), and authenticator applications, before they can access an endpoint (their tablet, laptop, or PC), business application, data, and physical locations from a building on campus to specific areas and rooms within. For the sake of cybersecurity, data security, regulatory compliance, and physical safety & security, knowledge workers are forced to endure these inconveniences.
But it’s even more of a barrier for frontline workers in manufacturing, production, warehouses, retail, and many other environments, who face a variety of unique obstacles to logging into production stations, as well as devices for training and to access administrative applications.
Challenges
These 6 challenges (in no particular order) impact on their productivity and the business’s security:
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including Masks and Gloves
PPE of some type is required in many environments, including food processing, biolabs, and clean rooms, to protect workers from hazardous environments for their health & safety, or to maintain a sterile/sanitary environment to protect the products they are working with from contamination.
One extremely common item is gloves which make it difficult to impossible to type, unsanitary to touch surfaces such as touchscreens and keypads on shared devices, and impede finger or palm biometric readings.
This leads to workers either fumbling through entering access data wearing the gloves, often failing to do so correctly on one or more attempts, or removing the gloves to gain access, and having to re-clean their hands and reapply the same gloves or a new pair after.
Another common protective gear is masks, eye shields, and other face/head safety equipment, which can interfere with biometric facial recognition, depending on how much of the face/head is obscured, whether the items can safely momentarily be removed, and the coding of the software.
These delays in individual logins add up per user, and are multiplied across the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of workers across one or more shifts, and as the old adage says, “Time is Money”.
Forgotten Passwords
Knowledge workers have a variety of tools at their disposal for remembering passwords, including operating system and browser password wallets, password managers, USB drives, or colored sticky notes, and often only need to access one device per day.
Deskless frontline workers have to access multiple devices, up to 10+ a day, shared by numerous workers per shift and across shifts. Unless every device in the company uses the same, simple password, which is every CISO’s worst nightmare, it’s the recipe for a lot of forgotten passwords.Those forgotten passwords mean workers are locked out of workstations awaiting password resets, which equates to lost production time costing money every minute (for the worker and IT staff).
Lack of Accountability
Passwords shared by every worker who needs to access devices result in lack of accountability of who’s accessing what area, workstation, or data, and when. Management and IT don’t know, and workers can’t account for their whereabouts or time either. If there’s unauthorized access or an error is committed it’s a big lift or impossible to identify the source, determine if it was malicious or accidental, and apply disciplinary action or corrective training.
Unauthorized access to physical spaces, applications, and data by external and internal threats mandates the adoption of a Zero-Trust cybersecurity policy. That means assuming that all access requests, regardless of origin or destination, be considered as originating from an untrusted, potentially malign source. And with the persistently high percentage of data breaches & exfiltration, Remote Access Trojan (RAT) injection and Ransomware implanting resulting from insider threats, that’s a good policy to have. (Also read: What is Zero Trust Architecture?)
No Multi-Factor Authentication
That loss of 2FA/MFA for access control significantly weakens physical and cybersecurity, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any business not eagerly imposing 2FA/MFA on their employees at all levels, as well as their vendors and clients that interface with them digitally.
Separate Administrative Systems
In addition to production workstations, deskless frontline workers also need to access various administrative applications such as Human Resources and Accounting for PTO (Paid Time Off) and Payroll, and the delays authenticating on these systems or failing to gain access on the first or subsequent attempts adds up to more lost production time, and more lost profits.
Language Barriers
Many manufacturing/production environments and other labor-intensive businesses have very diverse workforces in ethnically diverse regions, where not all the workers in those roles are multilingual, and log-in instructions and password choices in one language can be difficult or impossible to understand and follow for workers that don’t have a good understanding of that language.
The Solution
Fortunately, OLOID has developed and repeatedly successfully deployed a frictionless, Username-less and Passwordless Authentication Solution that cost-effectively addresses all these issues.
Learn how OLOID improved the login experience for frontline workers at Tyson Foods
• Facial and Palm Biometric and Access Badge readers and software that seamlessly integrate with existing systems allow workers to not need to recall & type passwords or understand complicated instructions:
- Saving time from each individual log-in per employee, which adds up to more production and less administration
- Saving time for working, instead of being locked out of workstations and awaiting password resets
- No need to be able to read or understand log-in instructions or passwords
- Liveness detection ensures it’s an employee at the plant, and not a photo or mask being used by an industrial spy, saboteur, or co-worker logging in a coworker for various reasons
- Employees’ Facial Identity paired with their physical badge ID badge provides an excellent, alternative MFA for shared devices
• Implement Zero-Trust passwordless authentication security policies by having accountability for what was accessed when and by whom to add another layer of physical and cybersecurity to protect against business/production disruptions costing profits every minute, as well as costly regulatory fines, shareholder lawsuits, and damage to brand, market-share, buyer-confidence, and revenue
• Stay compliant with mobile device policies without disadvantaging cell phoneless workers logging in
• Single identity, quick and easy access via Passwordless SSO (Single Sign On) adds up to less time spent accessing devices and more time working and producing product (Also Read: Understanding SSO and MFA: Uniting Convenience and Security)
If your organization’s frontline workers are facing similar challenges, and you’d like to explore how OLOID’s passwordless authentication and passwordless access solutions can benefit your organization, look at our website and Contact Us to speak with a specialist.
