Single Sign-on for Internet Users

Single sign-on has been a successful way to combat the effects of multiple sign-ons and passwords that not only mean inefficiency but can actually weaken security. while single sign-on has been successful in many organizations for their internal systems, it has been implemented less often for SAAS systems, and internet based systems that link the enterprise and its customers, suppliers and other collaborators.

The white paper linked to this article, although proprietary, provides a good overview of how single sign-on works, including the use of SAML (Secure Assertion Markup Language) to create the background communications between systems that make it all work. The white paper makes an interesting and quick read. It can be downloaded from this site. Secure Internet Single Sign-On 101