Beyond Identity Secure Work

Passwords are a persistent organizational weak point because they are easily stolen, guessed, or reused across services, and end-user behavior often amplifies risk. Since many breaches involve stolen credentials, password dependence increases exposure to brute force attacks, social engineering, and SIM swaps. As remote work expands and attacks grow, cybersecurity investment has risen, yet frequently fails to remove the foundational vulnerability: password-based authentication. Password management also creates operational burden, cost, and time waste. Consequently, password elimination has become a core industry objective, pushing adoption of truly passwordless solutions rather than “password-reduced” approaches like password managers or legacy MFA that still remain password-bound.

A robust passwordless approach should deliver a consistent, frictionless login across devices, integrate cleanly with existing access management, support standards, and remove reliance on phishable factors. Beyond Identity, founded in 2019, positions itself in this space with passwordless MFA, device trust, and risk-based authentication. Its workforce-focused product, Secure Work, replaces passwords with patent-pending credentials built on self-signed certificates and public-private key pairs. A key differentiator is avoiding traditional third-party certificate authorities by turning endpoint devices into their own CA using self-signed X.509 certificates, extending a TLS-like chain of trust to users and devices.

Secure Work binds user identity to one or multiple devices through keys anchored in hardware security such as the TPM. During login, the device generates and uses private-key operations that cannot be extracted, while the cloud validates certificates against stored public keys. Authentication combines biometrics (“something you are”) with device-held private keys (“something you own”) and enforces real-time device posture checks, optionally strengthened via MDM and EDR signals. Integration uses OAuth/OIDC with downstream SAML support and connects with major access management platforms, though challenges include legacy on-prem password dependencies, and missing out-of-the-box VPN and Windows Hello for Business integration.

• Most data breaches involve stolen credentials and compromised passwords.
• Password reuse across platforms increases exposure to brute force attacks, social engineering attacks, and SIM swaps.
• Beyond Identity was founded in early 2019 and is headquartered in New York.
• Beyond Identity’s stated capabilities include passwordless MFA, device trust, and risk-based authentication.
• Secure Work replaces passwords with credentials based on self-signed certificates and public-private key pairs.
• During initial registration, the public key is stored in the Beyond Identity cloud.
• The private key cannot be viewed or removed by the user or by Beyond Identity.
• Secure Work uses OAuth and OIDC protocols with downstream support for SAML.
• The platform integrates with Okta, Auth0, Ping Identity, ForgeRock, Microsoft Azure AD, and Microsoft ADFS.
• Listed challenges include lack of support for legacy password-reliant systems, plus no out-of-the-box VPN or Windows Hello for Business integration.

• “Passwords can easily be stolen, guessed, or compromised.”
• “Password elimination is recognized as a fundamental goal for the IT security industry.”
• “Many solutions claiming to be passwordless do not entirely eliminate passwords, but simply reduce the amount of passwords or add another insecure factor for authentication.”
• “Beyond Identity turns devices into their own CA.”
• “This innovative and key differentiator solution extends the server-to-server chain of trust established with Transport Layer Security (TLS) to users and their devices.”
• “Essentially, Secure Work replaces passwords with a strong asymmetric cryptography for authentication.”
• “The ability to continuously evaluate the security posture of multiple devices in a seamless manner at the exact time of login reinforces the notion that identity and the endpoint are the main security perimeters.”
• “Going passwordless is not something that can be achieved in a single step, but Beyond Identity provides frictionless MFA and makes it easier for organizations to connect a passwordless solution to a SSO.”
• “As cybersecurity threats continue to increase in scope, organizations need to innovate their authentication methods, get rid of passwords, attain an approach that is both secure, convenient, easy to administer and supports modern standards and a wide range of platforms.”
• “The challenge for strong authentication and MFA solutions is to find a win-win solution between security and convenience.”