Given Okta’s role as a critical part of identity infrastructure, strengthening Okta security is essential. This article covers six key Okta security settings that provide a strong starting point, along with recommendations for implementing continuous monitoring of your Okta security posture.
With over 18,000 customers, Okta serves as the cornerstone of identity governance and security for organizations worldwide. However, this prominence has made it a prime target for cybercriminals who seek access to valuable corporate identities, applications, and sensitive data. Recently, Okta warned its customers of an increase in phishing social engineering attempts to impersonate Okta support personnel.
Given Okta’s role as a critical part of identity infrastructure, strengthening Okta security is essential. This article covers six key Okta security settings that provide a strong starting point, along with how continuous monitoring of your Okta security posture helps you avoid misconfigurations and identity risks.
Let’s examine six essential Okta security configurations that every security practitioner should monitor:
Strong password policies are foundational to any identity security posture program. Okta allows administrators to enforce robust password requirements including:
To configure password requirements in Okta: Navigate to Security > Authentication > Password Settings in the Okta Admin Console.
With phishing attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, implementing phishing-resistant two-factor authentication on Okta accounts is crucial, especially for privileged admin accounts. Okta supports various strong authentication methods including:
To configure MFA factors: Go to Security > Multifactor > Factor Enrollment > Edit > Set factor to required, optional, or disabled.
Also, to enforce MFA for all admin console users, refer to this Okta help doc.
Okta ThreatInsight leverages machine learning to detect and block suspicious authentication attempts. This feature:
To configure: Enable ThreatInsight under Security > General > Okta ThreatInsight settings. For more, refer to this Okta help doc.
This security feature helps prevent session hijacking by binding administrative sessions to specific Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). When enabled:
To configure: Access Security > General > Admin Session Settings and enable ASN Binding.
Properly configured session lifetimes help minimize the risk of unauthorized access through abandoned or hijacked sessions. Consider implementing:
To configure: Navigate to Security > Authentication > Session Settings to adjust session lifetime parameters.
Okta behavior rules provide an extra layer of security by:
To configure: Access Security > Behavior Detection Rules to set up and customize behavior-based security policies.
Okta offers HealthInsight which provides security monitoring and posture recommendations to help customers maintain strong Okta security. But, maintaining optimal security across your entire SaaS infrastructure—including Okta—becomes increasingly complex as your organization grows. This is where SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solutions provide significant value:
SSPM solutions can automatically detect common Okta security misconfigurations such as:
By implementing a robust SaaS security and governance solution with advanced SSPM capabilities, organizations can maintain continuous visibility into their Okta security posture as well as other critical SaaS infrastructure and quickly remediate any issues that arise. This proactive approach to security helps prevent potential breaches before they occur and ensures that security configurations remain optimized over time.
Start a free 14-day trial of Nudge Security to start improving your Okta security posture and your overall SaaS security posture today.
