The increase in sophisticated, targeted security threats by both external attackers and malicious insiders have made it extremely difficult for organizations to properly protect critical and sensitive information. The task of protecting these assets has only grown harder as IT environments have become more complex and widely distributed across geographic locations and in the cloud. 

Many recent high-profile breaches have one thing in common: They were accomplished through the compromise of passwords. In many cases, end-user passwords are initially hacked through various social engineering techniques. Then permissions are escalated to gain access to more privileged accounts — the keys to the kingdom. This unauthorized access can easily go undetected for weeks or even months, allowing hackers to see and steal information at their convenience.