What is a Single Sign On ?
Today, many of us have multiple accounts for email, chat services, banking. Many different services that we sign up for and need a user name and password.The problem we face is that they all require, or tell us we need unique identities and passwords for each service. This is a problem for anyone with a poor memory and many people fall into the trap of using the same passwords for many services.
Wouldn’t it be convenient then if we could just use one, unique single sign on service to log in securely to our accounts, without needing to remember all these passwords ? So that no matter how many services or passwords we need to use, we can just sign in once and not have to worry about it. The answer lies in a system called single sign on.
What is single sign on ? Simply put, it’s one main login in which we store all our other identities. We need this so that we can be safe, yet still have access to the information we need with real security. One long running service in place is Microsoft’s Windows Live I.D. that used to be known as Passport.NET. This allows you to log into many Microsoft services after the initial single sign on and use services like .Net, Windows Live Messenger, Xbox Live, and any payment systems that each Microsoft service uses, all without needing to sign into those services individually. If you already have a MSN or Hotmail account then you automatically have a Windows Live I.D. that will work with any Microsoft single sign on service.
Since the release of Windows XP single sign on also allowed a Windows account to be linked to a Windows Live login so all services are available after logging into the PC. One thing to bear in mind is that Microsoft, in line with other companies has recently begun to target advertising at users as a way to increase revenue. This isn’t really anything to worry about though as nearly all cloud services (services that store information remotely from your PC) do the same thing, and should only deliver adverts to you that are of interest. .It’s always important to choose a good, strong secure password to protect yourself and keep yourself safe online. The Microsoft single sign on solution is a good system as long as the sign on is secure with a strong password.
