Though BT's dial-up approach is generally sufficient, it experienced scalability difficulties whenever the ranks of remote workers swelled. We decided to use digital certificates stored on smart cards, with Microsoft as the platform, and employ IPSec for encryption. The firm previously used Bedford, Mass.-based RSA Security Inc.'s SecurID token for remote access. Brown says that although that approach served the company well, users had to remember passwords, and the system didn't provide the encryption levels that BT desired. Our system required changing passwords every 30 days.
People inevitably forget passwords, and turning to the help desk is an expensive hobby.
Brown says that SSO is a goal at BT, but progress will come in stages. You have to bite off sensible chunks. Indeed, SSO doesn't come easily, and some doubt it will come at all. Now the issue is access to Web-based accounts. Rather than worrying about users doing SSO, companies need to worry about how they can administer user privileges centrally.