# What is single sign-on, and does it improve security?

Single sign-on (SSO) lets people sign in once with a company account from an identity provider and then use many applications without separate passwords, usually through the SAML or OpenID Connect standards. Done well, it improves security: fewer passwords to reuse or steal, one place to enforce multi-factor authentication and device rules, one place to see sign-ins, and one switch to turn off when someone leaves, which closes access to every connected application at once. The flip side is concentration: the identity provider becomes the key to everything, so protect its admin accounts with phishing-resistant MFA, keep an emergency access account sealed, and watch its sign-in logs. Applications outside SSO keep their own passwords; list them so that offboarding does not miss them. SSO is identity infrastructure, not network monitoring, and NetSenX does not see sign-ins. It shows what devices do on the network after anyone signs in.

FAQ: [Zero trust, identity and segmentation](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/zero-trust) · https://netsenx.com/en/faq/what-is-single-sign-on-and-does-it-improve-security

## Read next

- https://netsenx.com/en/detect-lateral-movement-c2-beaconing
- https://netsenx.com/en/what-is-ndr

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