What is a Physical Security Key?

Do you like the key for your car? It’s simple and prevents people from (easily) stealing your car, right?

Think of a security key the same way: as a key to your hardware, your data, and your apps, (like Salesforce), that restricts access to your most important information.

What is a YubiKey?

Overview

Yubi-Key is a brand of physical security key, that plug into USB ports, USB-C ports, and even iPhones. Once plugged in, they can act as “keys” that allow access to devices and applications.

I like YubiKeys because they provide a physical layer of access prevention. Unlike a password or authentication application, a security key is detached from the internet, so without this physical device in hand, access is prevented.

How they work…

YubiKeys cost around $50 each and they take some setup.

There are numerous ways to set up a YubiKey – but in general, the YubiKey stores a secret key that only you know. This secret key is sent to the application or hardware when you log in to verify your identity.

How they work for Salesforce…

After the YubiKey has been set up and configured in Salesforce, when a user logs in, they are asked to verify their identity by inserting their YubiKey into a USB or USB-C port and touching the gold icon on the YubiKey.

FYI – YubiKey fulfills the MFA(multi-factor authentication) requirement in Salesforce!

Here is a video to see it in action-

Do you want Fostering to take care of it?

Fostering recommends 10 block hours for this service. We will assist you with the following:

Pricing the right YubiKey.
Configuring the YubiKeys with a secret key.
Configuring your Salesforce users with the necessary MFA settings
Providing documentation for future user setup.