Title
Bitwarden Password management
Body
In trying to further secure the Orland Park environment, the Village is looking at installing a password manager. While a lot of systems supported by the Village use Microsoft AD pass through for authentication, there are still a lot of systems that have unique user names and passwords. Having multiple user names and difficult to guess passwords leads to security risks as either passwords are shared among different systems, the passwords are written down or they are stored in non-secure media such as Excel spreadsheets. The reasons for a password manager are as follows;
Security: Password managers generate strong, unique passwords for each account and store them securely. This eliminates the need to remember multiple complex passwords, writing down passwords or resort to using easily guessable passwords.
Protection from Password Reuse: Using the same password across multiple accounts is a significant security risk. If one account is compromised, all other accounts with the same password become vulnerable. A password manager helps avoid this risk by generating and storing unique passwords for each account.
Encrypted Storage: Password managers encrypt the password vault with strong encryption, ensuring that even if a device is lost with the password manager software, without the master password there is no access to the passwords stored in the vault.
Password Generation: Password managers generate strong, random passwords that are virtually impossible for hackers to guess. These passwords are typically longer and more complex than those most people would create on their own. Creating and then storing them in the vault will provide greater protection.
Protection from Phishing: Password managers often integrate with web browsers to automatically fill in login credentials. This helps prevent falling victim to phishing attacks, where fake websites try to steal your login information.
Easy Password Management: With a password manager, you can easily update and change passwords as needed without the hassle of memorizing or manually entering them each time.
The IT department has investigated multiple password manager systems and are proposing to move forward with using Bitwarden as a password manager for the Village employees. Bitwarden was chosen over other tools as they offer either an on site solution or cloud based solution, syncing solutions, enterprise password management policies, and meets a number of security compliance requirements including soc 2 and HIPAA.
The initial focus will be on users with access to multiple systems that are not Microsoft AD integrated. Based on these requirements, the initial rollout will include 100 people.
The cost for this is $6 per user per month or $7200 for the year for 100 users.