🔐 Authentication Challenges in the Manufacturing Sector and the Passwordless Future! 🚀

[Hasan S. Cemkan]

Authentication Friction and Risky Behaviors in the Manufacturing Sector​

According to a recent report, frontline workers across industries are finding workarounds in authentication processes that lead to security risks. These behaviors most significantly impact the manufacturing sector.

This situation, dubbed "authentication friction," means that employees are distracted from their work when logging into applications or systems through processes like verification or password resets. This pushes frontline workers towards risky workarounds such as dangerous password sharing. The report "Frontline Friction: The State of Authentication in Frontline Workers," prepared by Imprivata and the FIDO Alliance, details this problem.

Key Findings from the Report:​

• Work Delays: 34% of manufacturers reported that authentication challenges delayed frontline work.
  
• Impact of Legacy Technology: In manufacturing organizations where unique credentials are not consistently used, 41% cited endpoints or applications that do not support appropriate authentication methods as a problem.
  
• Security Friction and Risky Behavior: The manufacturing sector has the highest rate of credential sharing (38%) among the surveyed industries. Manufacturing IT/security decision-makers are more concerned about AI-powered impersonation (51%) than traditional social engineering (48%).
  
• Shift to Passwordless Authentication: 29% of manufacturing organizations are currently using passwordless keys, and 28% are prioritizing them within the next two years.
  

Organizations estimate that over 30% of their frontline workers encounter authentication issues when logging into their systems or applications in a typical month. Each affected employee loses approximately 2.5 hours per month due to recurring interruptions.

Consequences of Authentication Friction​

The report revealed that the manufacturing sector is most affected by the consequences of authentication friction, with workers in this sector experiencing more authentication friction than others.

Frank Balonis, Director of Information Security and Senior Vice President of Operations at Kiteworks, stated, "In manufacturing environments, it's more likely to have shared workstations. If you have shared workstations, you need to change the user who's logged in. Obviously, manufacturing is not unique in that, but it's more prevalent there."

To reduce this friction, frontline workers find workarounds, such as staying logged into systems. Balonis notes that this creates "an opening where if someone wants to do something malicious, they're not logged in as themselves."

The Passwordless Future 🚀​

As of April 2026, threat activities in manufacturing have increased by nearly 250%. This pushes companies to seek ways to reduce authentication friction, thereby decreasing the likelihood of employees resorting to risk-creating workarounds.

Balonis advocated for phishing-resistant, passwordless authentication, stating that it makes authentication easier for users and thus reduces the likelihood of using workarounds: "The future is passwordless, and the sooner you get there, the better."

Joel Burleson-David, CTO of Imprivata, echoed this advice. He said that measures could be taken to prevent credential sharing or session reuse, but if this introduces additional friction or burden, users will find other ways to circumvent the process or system. He cited methods such as passwordless authentication and facial biometrics as examples.

The report by Imprivata with the FIDO Alliance also revealed that faster transitions between users and devices was the most reported passwordless benefit in manufacturing. For the manufacturing sector, Burleson-Davis said that fingerprint is often not suitable, but facial biometrics and phishing-resistant passwordless keys can serve as effective passwordless methods.

AI and the "Chicken-and-Egg" Problem​

As AI continues to accelerate security breaches, Burleson-David noted that it creates "a constantly expanding attack surface." Manufacturers already face higher rates of ransomware attacks, further complicating the problem.

He added that identity lifecycle attacks are also increasing, with AI breaching VPNs and security consultant firewalls to infiltrate facilities. He also said he has seen many "sophisticated social engineering" attacks by attacking the credential lifecycle.

As identity has become so central to logging into shared equipment and privileged systems, individual password authentications have become increasingly important. However, this is also the type of authentication friction that leads users to find workarounds.

Burleson-Davis said, "This creates a chicken-and-egg problem. Identity is under attack, so many IT departments implement security controls, often without considering the workforce [making authentication harder, leading to workarounds] which increases risk."

He stated that the passwordless transition not only solves this problem but also provides benefits. Less authentication friction leads to better working environments, improved business processes, and increased employee productivity.

Burleson-Davis concluded, "Not only will we minimize the negativity of being breached throughout that identity lifecycle, but we can also make our workforce and our frontline workers more effective. There are very few examples of such a win-win opportunity.