Glossary · Security

SSO

Single Sign-On

In plain language

One login, usually your Microsoft or Google account, opens all your work apps.

The metaphor

Like a building pass that opens every door you are cleared for: one card to issue, and one card to cancel when someone leaves.

Going deeper

How it works

You sign in once, and supported apps trust that sign-in.
Adding or removing a person happens in one place.
MFA on the one account protects everything behind it.
Apps without SSO still need unique passwords in a vault.

What can go wrong (example scenario)

A five-person non-profit let a staff member go. She had separate logins to the donor database, the newsletter tool and the shared drive. Two of them were never turned off. Six months later a donor export appeared somewhere it should never have been.

How WILDCARD handles it

Password Manager is a business vault with SSO: staff sign in once, apps that support SSO use it, and the vault holds strong unique passwords for everything else. Cloud covers the Microsoft 365 or Google sign-in behind it, and Identity Monitor watches those logins.

In practice

A dental office connects its practice management cloud app to Microsoft 365 sign-in.
A law firm wants a departing associate removed from every system in one step.
A retailer with staff turnover wants new hires productive on day one with one login.

Example scenario: A small consulting firm onboarded a contractor for a three-month project. Through SSO he got the five apps he needed on day one. On his last day, one account was disabled and every app closed to him at once. No scramble to remember what he had been given.

A question owners ask

Does SSO mean one password unlocks everything, which sounds risky?

That one login is protected by MFA and watched closely, which makes it stronger than ten forgotten passwords on sticky notes. The risk concentrates where it can actually be defended.

Where WILDCARD handles this