--- title: Enterprise single sign-on with adaptive authentication description: Single sign-on is there to make your users' lives easier, but it should also improve security. Adaptive authentication gets you there. image: https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18488483-jpg/images/adaptive_authentication.jpg --- [![empowerID-logo](https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/empowerID-logo.svg "empowerID-logo")](http://www.empowerid.com) **![phone](https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/images/phone.svg)   1-877-996-4276   **or**  +1 (614) 652-6825** [![Share on facebook](https://7528309.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528309/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/facebook-color.png?width=24&name=facebook-color.png) ](https://www.facebook.com/220903377569) [![Share on linkedin](https://7528302.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528302/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/linkedin-color.png?width=24&name=linkedin-color.png) ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/85780) [![Share on twitter](https://7528304.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528304/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/twitter-color.png?width=24&name=twitter-color.png) ](https://twitter.com/EmpowerID) [![Share on pinterest](https://7528311.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528311/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-web-default-modules_hubspot/img/pinterest-color.png?width=24&name=pinterest-color.png) ](http://www.youtube.com/user/empowerID) # All-In-One Identity Management and Cloud Security Emerging technologies are challenging old paradigms and unveiling new ways of approaching the security discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. EmpowerID has embedded innovative technologies in every aspect, providing flexible and mature IAM capabilities in the cloud, on premise and in hybrid environments, addressing the mission-critical need across increasingly heterogeneous technology environments, and meeting increasingly rigorous compliance requirements. # Enterprise single sign-on with adaptive authentication Posted by [Edward Killeen](https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/author/edward-killeen) on Fri, Jun 01, 2012 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) *Not all applications are created equal*. For some corporate apps, everyone should be able to access them.  Some should be restricted to certain users, groups and roles.  Some even more sensitive applications should be restricted to certain users, groups and roles and have a higher standard of authentication.  We call this adaptive authentication. Let's use examples: - Corporate holiday calendar:  everyone should be able to access this just using their corporate logon. - Salesforce.com app:  only users in the sales group or role should be able to access this. - Financials ERP app:  only users in the finance group or role should be able to access this but you want two factor authentication and/or identity proofing before letting them in. Single sign-on can and should accomplish all of these tasks.  For number one, it's a simple federation with the app (scenario # 3 in the whitepaper "[Top 5 Federated Single Sign-on Scenarios](https://blog.empowerid.com/top-5-federated-single-sign-on-sso-scenarios/)").  For number two, it's scenario 1, corporate login to cloud application, pretty simple to do with SAML or OAuth. Number 3 is the fun one that requires adaptive authentication for single sign-on. ![Adaptive Authentication](https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18488483-jpg/images/adaptive_authentication.jpg) This diagram shows the workflow used to accomplish this.  You set a level of application security in the SSO systems inventory.  Any application that is over level 5, for example, needs to have two factor authentication integrated into the login.  The user is logging in to the ERP financials system, the workflow checks that they have access and then before allowing authentication, it executes a second factor authentication (something you have to have, not just something you know like a password). This second factor can be an SMS message, an RSA security token, and even be identity proofing from within the directory (what was your previous job title, what was your hire date, etc.).  ***Single sign-on is there to make your users' lives easier, but it should also improve security***. Schedule a [demonstration of how EmpowerID can accomplish adaptive authentication](https://blog.empowerid.com/scheduledemo/) or read the [whitepaper on the "Top 5 Federated Single Sign-on Scenarios"](https://blog.empowerid.com/top-5-federated-single-sign-on-sso-scenarios/) now. 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EmpowerID © 2021 EmpowerID ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Edward Killeen", "url" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/author/edward-killeen" }, "datePublished" : "2012-06-01T17:03:00.000Z", "headline" : "Enterprise single sign-on with adaptive authentication", "image" : [ "https://blog.empowerid.com/hs-fs/file-18488483-jpg/images/adaptive_authentication.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/blog-1/bid/161135/Enterprise-single-sign-on-with-adaptive-authentication", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.empowerid.com/hubfs/Asset%201.svg" }, "name" : "EmpowerID" } } ```