Securing employee accounts to support millions of gamers
With their roots reaching back to 2004, Roblox has boomed to become one of the most popular video games in the world. Its virtual universe allows gamers to create and share experiences with friends to become anything they want. With more than 50 million monthly active users, the company is supporting and protecting a massive player base. Keeping that platform running efficiently requires a proactive, efficient, and secure internal team. The organization tends to build internal tools over buying software solutions when possible, but they also see partnerships as valuable ways to strengthen their custom, multi-cloud infrastructure.
The Roblox identity team supports more than 2,500 employees around the world, and they initially adopted Okta Workforce Identity to manage that team because it was platform and cloud-agnostic. They also knew they would have a partner to enhance and evolve their identity solutions over time to meet new challenges. “Any time I’ve needed something related to identity, my team is able to reach out to Okta,” says David Whitten, principal enterprise applications engineer. “Okta gives us the collaboration and level of access we need to build a solution that meets our needs.”
More recently, the company saw an opportunity to simplify their end-user experience with phishing-resistant authentication options to stay ahead of evolving threats by eliminating password-based attack vectors. They also identified parts of their identity infrastructure, including managing access for external business partners, that could benefit from automation. In their “build over buy” approach, they needed to decide where the next step of their identity journey would take them.
Choosing an identity partner to implement secure, easy-to-use authentication
Even though Roblox had the capability to design new solutions, the team found alignment with Okta as a strategic partner. Through that partnership, the Roblox team found they could collaborate with Okta to build the solutions they needed and create a robust identity security fabric that builds security into every facet of identity management. . “My goal is always to make things both more secure and easier for the user,” says Whitten. “Okta was excited to work with us to build additional features that helped us achieve that.” Together, Roblox worked with the Okta team to refine a passwordless solution that would support their security approach and make it as simple as possible for users to access their applications.
Meanwhile, the IT team worked with Okta to explore ways to automate their identity governance, especially for contract support employees. “To offboard a support member, our team leads had to manually update a spreadsheet, let HR know, and another user would have to go back to the sheet to change their status,” Whitten says. “We needed to make it so everybody knows who has access and be able to make that change efficiently.” This change had to include granting and revoking access based on roles and empowering users to request additional tools as needed, so everyone could access the apps they needed while carefully monitoring standing access privileges.
Securing automatic, day-one access with centralized governance controls
Through collaboration with Okta, Roblox was able to deploy FastPass for phishing-resistant, passwordless authentication in less than two weeks. “Connecting FastPass to the rest of our identity infrastructure means we can have users ready to access the applications they need on their first day with a single, secure login,” Whitten says. Combining FastPass with Workflows and Okta Identity Governance (OIG), the company can connect their vast network of custom-built apps across their multi-cloud environment to ensure any user can securely and easily access the tools they need while retaining clear oversight. The company uses more than 300 Workflows to automate their lifecycle management processes so the team has the confidence that access changes happen when they’re supposed to. “With unlimited Workflows, you can basically do whatever you want from an identity perspective,” Whitten adds. “Today, we can automatically check if FastPass is enabled, add a user to an OIG group, and make sure users adhere to our security policies without impacting productivity.”
One key Workflow connects to Lifecycle Management to help new Robloxians have day-one access to the apps they need. New hires are granted access to their HR system, Workday, with limited access through a “pre-hire” role in Okta. Once their status is updated on their first day, they can use Okta to immediately log into applications unique to their role. The team can also clearly audit and track access with OIG, keeping the company secure even as access permissions and roles change. “When anyone is onboarded, offboarded, or changes roles, their permissions are automatically changed. Okta Identity Governance gives us peace of mind that users, especially our outsourced team members, only have the access we provide them, and it’s all tied to their HR status.”
These solutions together help Roblox establish a comprehensive identity security fabric. Users are verified from the moment their accounts are created, and security is built into the Roblox identity experience. Employees are empowered to complete their work without disruption, and the IT team can support company growth while keeping Roblox safe. “Our identity process with Okta is streamlined and secure,” Whitten adds. “Before someone even starts, they have an Okta account. They come in, go through orientation, register for FastPass, and they’re ready to go in a way they simply couldn’t without Okta.” Looking ahead, the team plans to bring more of their identity program into Okta, including identity verification and device access. By bringing these capabilities together with passwordless authentication, and governance into one unified identity security fabric, Roblox can further optimize workforce onboarding, making the experience even more secure, scalable, and efficient for administrators and employees alike.
About Customer
Roblox’s mission is to connect a billion people with optimism and civility. The game is the ultimate virtual universe that lets users create, share experiences with friends, and be anything they can imagine. Each of those experiences are built by the Roblox community, made up of millions of creators building a safe, civil, and diverse community.
