How Bitwarden brings value to your business

As the manager of a business or a businesses’ security, you have to weigh the risks and benefits of any solution you purchase and implement. Some security tools offer protection but compromise on usability, while others are able to accelerate user workflows. This means you need to evaluate productivity costs as well.

Fortunately, a password manager such as Bitwarden can improve security, reducing your risk, while also being a catalyst for teamwork and collaboration.

It’s never pleasant to discuss a scenario in which things go wrong, but when evaluating security risks it’s important to calculate what could happen and what the costs would be if you suffered a security breach. 60% of businesses surveyed say they’ve experienced cyber attacks in the past, reflecting the real threat faced in the business world.

The average price tag for a data breach for a U.S. firm is $9.36M, according to “The Cost Of A Data Breach Report” by IBM in 2024. Below, we explore a few areas where hidden and real costs can arise.

• Opportunity Cost: With your systems shut down, IT personnel busy patching holes and pouring through logs, and customer support lines filled with calls from concerned customers, you’re putting lucrative projects on the back burner and missing out on new sales.

• Ransom: This is the actual payment you may make to get your data back in a ransomware attack. The average ransom from attacks is $2M according to Sophos's The State of Ransomware 2024 report.

• Legal: Breach laws vary by jurisdiction in which business is done and usually requires notification of customers of compromised data. Besides the obvious potential for class action lawsuits, there’s also potential regulatory fines and reparation costs, such as paying for credit monitoring for affected customers.

• Reputation: In business, “reputation is everything.” Blemishes on your reputation may discourage partners and investors from working with you and potential top-talent from working for you. Also, both current and new customers may be lured away by competition taking advantage of your setback.

The IBM report states that the average cost per record leaked is $169, with Employee and Customer Personal Identifiable Information (PII) costing $189 and $179, respectively. Between records of current and former customers, marketing lead lists, LCM/CRM operations, employee data and more, the amount of vulnerable records on your systems and resulting breach cost may surprise you.

Verizon reported in their Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations that weak, reused, or stolen passwords account for the cause in 68% of cyberattacks and breaches, while an additional 7% can be accounted for misused privileges. It is a common saying in the security industry that “hackers don’t break in, they log in.”

In contrast to the aforementioned $169 cost per record leaked, Bitwarden plans for business start at just $4 per user per month. The sayings "a stitch in time saves nine," and "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" ring true for password security.

Collections and user groups enable easy and secure sharing of logins and vault items across teams requiring access. Consider social media accounts that frequently offer only a single login, and being able to share that safely across a team. Likewise credit card info can be shared with just the right team members.

In many cases, accounts require a one-time-passcode for two-factor authentication. With the built-in Bitwarden authenticator, any team member can generate that code and access the account from the shared login with two quick keystrokes. This is a much more elegant, streamlined solution than having to call the teammate that set up the account to get the temporary code!

For collaborating internally and externally, Bitwarden Send enables efficient end-to-end encrypted sharing of text or files from any Bitwarden client application to anyone, even non-Bitwarden users. Imagine sharing sensitive new product information with an outside agency. Bitwarden Send encrypts the file and generates a link that can be messaged to the agency. The link enables the agency to download and decrypt the file, and depending on settings, Send can lock the file from further access. Learn more about how Bitwarden Send works here.

A saved password is only good if you can get to it. Bitwarden provides cross-platform functionality and free cloud hosting with no limitations on the number, or types, of devices. Offline, read access to your vault is available as a local cache on your device. Plus the web app can be accessed anywhere with a modern browser and internet connection.

Password managers save you time by managing passwords. A simple enough proposition with outsized benefits. Generate and store passwords quickly, and autofill them into a login page with just one keypress (ctrl/cmd + shift + L) or through the inline autofill menu. Save time from not having to physically physically type it in and also from needing to retrieve the password from a computer document or sticky note. Or worse, having to reset the password when it’s forgotten. Add in sharing with teammates, and these time savings compound quickly.

With user groups and collections, logins and other items are shared intuitively. Users are granted specific permissions to modify passwords and vault items, so that a team lead can handle password change requests without having to submit an IT ticket. Organization management settings and custom role for enterprises allows even more granular access permissions to help teams manage themselves.

Bitwarden syncs users and groups from many types of directory services. The Bitwarden Directory Connector automatically provisions and deprovisions users and groups, freeing up administrative time not only for initial setup and deployment, but also for continuous management of users during onboarding and succession.

Enterprise customers can integrate Bitwarden with identity managers to streamline authentication and login for end users. Flexible options for managing decryption add support for multiple types of deployments. Learn about Login with SSO here. Depending on how it's configured, this can also enable a one-step login to the vault, saving even more time.

To review, Bitwarden adds value to your business in three ways: risk reduction, productivity through collaboration, and efficient time savings. Bitwarden makes it easy for employees to practice great password security habits, which they may not do on their own, to protect against costly data breaches.

Finally, Bitwarden adds value by providing complimentary families plans, normally $40/year, to each user in an enterprise organization, allowing employees to bring password security home to their loved ones. This can be offered to your employees as a perk of working at your company.

Learn more about the capabilities of Bitwarden and the protection and value it can bring to your business at Bitwarden Plans and Pricing and start a trial today!

Editor's note, August 27, 2024: Updated with recent statistics, new features, and reordered for readability