Swaroop Sham

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Security

Swaroop Sham is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Security at Okta. His main focus areas include Multi-factor Authentication, Adaptive Authentication, and Security Integrations. He recently joined Okta, bringing with him over 10 years of experience in cybersecurity. He previously worked at Sift Science, Proofpoint, FireEye and F5 Networks. Swaroop has a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

What Is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?

MFA stands for multi-factor authentication, an identity verification method. MFA adds an extra layer of security on top of credentials like usernames and passwords. By doing so, it provides greater certainty that a user is who they claim to be before granting them access to an application, online account, or corporate network. MFA is a critical…

Security Questions: Best Practices, Examples, and Ideas

Security questions are a common method of identity authentication—one you’ve probably encountered before. When creating an account or signing up for a service online, users will confidentially share the answers to secret questions with a provider. Typically, these security questions and answers are used for self-service password recovery…

The Journey to CIAM Maturity: Let’s Start with the Basics of Customer Identity

Modernizing digital initiatives is a key priority for most organizations, but many still have a long way to go before they can better enable, secure, and delight their users. And when it comes to customer identity and access management (CIAM), most companies find themselves in the earliest stages of maturity. Throughout this blog series, we'll…

Magic Links: Passwordless Login for Your Users

Magic links are a form of passwordless login. Instead of the user entering any login credentials to sign in, they are sent a URL with an embedded token via email, and sometimes via SMS. Once the user clicks that link to authenticate, they are redirected back to the application or system having successfully signed in—as if they used a “magic”…

6 Steps to Practice Strong Laptop Security

If you’ve ever found yourself searching security questions like “how to secure my work computer” and “laptop security antivirus,” this article is for you. Here, we answer common company laptop security questions like: How do I keep my laptop secure in a public network? What is the best security system for my computer? Is my laptop password safe?…

What Is Data Theft?

Data theft is the act of stealing information stored on corporate databases, devices, and servers. This form of corporate theft is a significant risk for businesses of all sizes and can originate both inside and outside an organization. The term data theft can give the impression that this kind of breach is based on malicious intent, but this is…

What Is Biometric Authentication?

Biometric authentication is a security process that compares a person’s characteristics to a stored set of biometric data in order to grant access to buildings, applications, systems, and more. With cybercrime, fraud, and identity theft on the rise, it’s more important than ever for businesses to help customers and employees verify their identity,…

What Is Data Misuse?

Data misuse is the use of information in ways it wasn’t intended for. User agreements, corporate policies, data privacy laws, and industry regulations all set conditions for how data can be collected and used. Data misuse violates these requirements. Unlike data theft, data misuse doesn’t necessarily happen as a result of a cyberattack or when…

What Is a Data Breach?

A data breach happens when cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to a system or network, allowing them to search for sensitive data pertaining to a business and its customers, and using it to extract some form of illegal value. Attackers might sell this data on the dark web, directly engage in fraud, hold the information for ransom, or use it to…

What Is Data Security?

Data security is the protection of digital data and accounts in accordance with laws and industry standards in order to mitigate risks and repel attackers. It encompasses business data, employee information, and customer and user data. If that sounds multifaceted, it is: putting data security into practice isn’t one size fits all. With companies…