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Cisco Duo

Cisco Duo

Overview

What is Cisco Duo?

Cisco Duo is a two-factor authentication system (2FA), acquired by Cisco in October 2018. It provides single sign-on (SSO) and endpoint visibility, as well as access controls and policy controlled adaptive authentication.

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Recent Reviews

Duo Security

10 out of 10
July 28, 2023
Incentivized
Duo has helped solved our issues with compromised accounts. This implementation has been key in improving security measures here. My only …
Continue reading
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Video Reviews

4 videos

Cisco Review - Secure Access Helps Meet Company Cyber Security Requirements
01:42
Cisco Secure Access Review: Allows Company Peace of Mind With Protection
01:51
Cisco Secure Access by Duo Review: Used As A Simple Tool To Provide Safe Access to Accounts
02:32
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Pricing

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Duo Essentials

$3

Cloud
per month per user

Duo Advantage

$6

Cloud
per month per user

Duo Premier

$9

Cloud
per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://duo.com/pricing?utm_source=trus…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting / Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $3 per month per user
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Product Details

What is Cisco Duo?

Cisco Duo is a solution to protect applications by using a second source of validation, like a phone or token, to verify user identity before granting access. Cisco Duo is engineered to provide a simple, streamlined login experience for every user and application, and as a cloud-based solution, it integrates with existing technology


Editions

Duo Essentials
A full-featured access management solution that includes strong Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Passwordless, Single Sign-On (SSO) and Trusted Endpoints verification for every organization. It serves as a cloud-based two-factor authentication and multi-factor authentication solution that can be used to secure access to unlimited applications at no additional cost to ensure security coverage as the organization’s application inventory grows.

Duo Essentials Includes:
  • MFA (Flexible options including FIDO2 and Verified Duo Push)
  • Single Sign-On
  • Passwordless Authentication (Using FIDO2 or Duo Mobile)
  • Trusted Endpoints Verification
  • Device Visibility
  • Authorized Networks
  • Unlimited Application Integrations
  • User Group Policies


Duo Advantage
Added security, with adaptive and risk-based authentication policies, device health checks and machine learning-driven attack detection. Duo Advantage provides organizations with stronger, multi-layered defenses with capabilities designed to improve security for organizations and enables higher productivity for administrators and end-users.

Duo Advantage builds upon the Duo Essentials suite capabilities and adds:
  • Risk-Based Authentication
  • Device Health Checks
  • Adaptive Access Policies
  • Machine-Learning driven Threat Detection
  • Full-Featured Dashboards with Comprehensive Reporting


Duo Premier
A complete access management suite with VPN-less remote access. Duo Premier expands on Duo’s rigid security access solutions to cover private resources and private applications. Duo Premier gives access to all of the capabilities provided by Duo Essentials and Duo Advantage plus VPN-less remote access with the Duo Network Gateway.

Duo Premier protects organization with all of Cisco Duo's offerings, including:

  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) with Duo Verified Push and FIDO2 support
  • Single Sign-On
  • Trusted Endpoints Verification
  • Passwordless Authentication
  • Device Visibility
  • Unlimited Application integrations
  • Risk-Based Authentication
  • Device Health Checks
  • Adaptive Access Policies
  • Machine-Learning Driven Threat Detection
  • Full-Featured Dashboards and Comprehensive Reporting
  • VPN-less Secure Remote Access
  • Endpoint Protection Check



Cisco Duo Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Cisco Duo is a two-factor authentication system (2FA), acquired by Cisco in October 2018. It provides single sign-on (SSO) and endpoint visibility, as well as access controls and policy controlled adaptive authentication.

Cisco Duo starts at $3.

Google Authenticator, WatchGuard AuthPoint, and The Okta Identity Cloud are common alternatives for Cisco Duo.

Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 9.8.

The most common users of Cisco Duo are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(276)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 123)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 06, 2023

Cisco Duo review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cisco Duo is utilized by System Administrators of the the Pilatus Pilot Training System environment, providing 2FA when logging into servers with an Administrator Account. When an admin enters their credentials to authenticate to a server, the Cisco Duo app on the phone prompts the user to validate for approval before providing access to the server.
  • Multi Factor Authentication
  • Logging of authentication attempts by an Administrator
  • If a user password is known there is still potential to compromise the users credentials if a phone is stolen. This poses an additional security risk.
As I work in the Defence industry on primarily airgapped environments, Cisco Duo may not be appropriate for 2FA solution. It is suitable for an environment which has an internet connection.
November 03, 2023

Cisco Duo Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It allows us to do secure login, single sign-on, and sort of dual-factor authentications.
  • Helps me log into internal websites by providing dual-factor, multifactor authentications.
  • Right now there's nothing.
It's well suited for employees like me who are working out of the office at times and trying to access internal systems.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cisco Duo for MFA of Active Directory and other software/services that are used within the company. It allows us to require MFA for our servers, endpoints, and a variety of other platforms that we deem necessary to have MFA.
  • Provides a great user experience for MFA on Endpoints.
  • Offers multiple options for completing the MFA process from mobile apps to Yubikeys.
  • Allows for granular configuration based on each companies needs.
  • Documentation is oftentimes missing key information for proper implementation. This is circumvented by reading third-party guides or contacting support for additional details.
  • They do not push Fail-Closed as much as I think they should. Fail-Open is fairly trivial to bypass and it should be made known to the customer during setup how much this will affect overall security.
  • More vendor integration is something that is always craved by administrators. There are so many third-parties to integrate with.
Cisco Duo is extremely well-suited for someone wanting to add MFA to an on-premise Active Directory environment. Some of the other vendors in this space do provide this feature, but they do not natively support it. One of the top competitors in this space requires signing up with another third-party service to make this integration possible. Less moving parts for something as crucial as this is a huge benefit and having only one vendor to point fingers at makes troubleshooting much simpler.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cisco Secure Access by Duo for being able to track Active Directory Logins. We are able to see when users logged in and from where. We can maintain cyber security compliance, and use this with all of our user accounts.
  • Secure Access
  • Login Date and time tracing
  • The SMS portion goes down often.
  • I would move the approve and deny options to ensure it requires different interactions each time.
It is great for places with many users or a few users. I think it serves a great role in environments with Active Directory. It is not a good fit for companies who do not use Active Directory.
September 09, 2023

Amazingly Compact 2FA Tool

Itumeleng Thekiso | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I primarily use and manage Cisco Secure Access by Duo users in my organization. I use it mainly to create Duo profiles in the Duo management console and to add their mobile phones and sync them to the AD within the Duo console. The primary use for Cisco Secure Access by Duo within our organization is to help authenticate users trying to gain access to Fortna resources. Cisco Secure Access by Duo has drastically enhanced our security footprint within the organization.
  • User authentication
  • Authentication method options
  • User profile management
  • More analytics/insights on devices
  • Random authentication requests
  • Authentication timeouts (due to your device being slower than the next person)
Cisco Secure Access by Duo is well-suited for large organizations where security and user management are paramount. This kind of tool is less appropriate if you are running a small business or using an alternative 2FA tool other than Cisco Secure Access by Duo to manage a small-scale business that may be required.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Cisco Secure Access by Duo as our method for MFA (multi-factor authentication) for multiple applications (remote desktop, Cisco VPN, OneLogin, Darktrace, etc.).
  • Active directory sync
  • Ease of use for users and admins
  • Integration with other applications
  • Support other vendor hardware security tokens
  • More price competitive
You will need to use a Cisco Secure Access by Duo hardware token since it doesn't support 3rd party. As for pricing, some vendors like Microsoft have their own, so it might come with the license you already own. If you want easy management and use, this solution is straightforward.
July 28, 2023

Duo Security

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Duo has helped solved our issues with compromised accounts. This implementation has been key in improving security measures here. My only issue is that we did not do it sooner. I would recommend this to anyone who needs to protect user accounts on additional levels and would look to use it again.
  • Simple to use
  • Easy to configure
  • Easy for users
  • Price
  • Deployment assistance
I would 100% recommend this to anyone who needs to add multi-factor authentication. It is easy to configure and set up with our single-sign-on environment. We have end users who have appreciated the need for this software and they do not complain about It because of the functionality.
Scott Quimby | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We needed to implement multi-function authentication (MFA) on multiple platforms (Mac, Windows, Andriod, iPhone) with multiple applications. We have a hybrid workforce and heavily leverage cloud and on-premise technology and applications.
  • Easy to use
  • Easy to implement
  • Easy to recover from a lost or damaged phone
  • Easy to track
  • Recovery aspects are not necessarily obvious
  • The Cisco Duo installation defaults to allowing MFA to be off if the application cannot communicate is a major flaw
  • It is not obvious that tight controls need to be in place for end-user self-service provisioning. In some circumstances a compromised user ID and password could obtain a legitimate MFA configuration if the compromised user had not yet setup their Duo configuration before the compromise.
I have found Cisco Duo well suited in all implementation scenarios we have had. However, it is still reliant on our local Duo Proxy server for cloud apps so that does create a coverage gap for hybrid O365/Google Apps. If the on premise proxy server goes down, or is unreachable, we are relying on secondary or tertiary MFA options (i.e. SMS, Backup Code, "Is this you?" mobile app prompting, etc.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We utilize Cisco Secure Access by Duo to protect our windows logins, remote access logins, administrative logins, Remote Desktop logins, and VPN logins for ourselves and our clients. Many of our clients are Automotive Dealerships, and Cisco Secure Access by Duo allows us to protect almost all of our important logins for ourselves and our clients and gives us the ability to satisfy the requirements of the new Federal Safeguard regulations.
  • Windows Active Directory Integration
  • Easy to install app on cell phone with easy usage
  • Alternate access via SMS text or phone call
  • Easy replacement for Google Authenticator
  • Some clients feel that the cost is a little high
  • Our margin on this product isn't tremendous
  • I wish Connectwise allowed us to use this for our MSP products
For our clients, it has been a lifesaver allowing us to implement MFA for their user logins, VPN access, and RDP logins. It has kept unauthorized users out of their systems. I love the demo reseller portion that allows us to utilize the product for free and test it before rolling it out, and we continue to use it for free! Cisco Secure Access by Duo understands that the more we utilize it, the better we can use it with our clients.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to protect several functions. Windows logon at the terminal and RDP. I have the proxy running for our VPN tunnel. I also have it integrated into our Microsoft 365 and use SAML with other applications to leverage it in as many places as possible.
  • Authentication
  • Mobile App
  • Key Fobs
  • Push Notifications
  • FIDO
  • Policies could be simplified.
  • Improved conditional access.
It does a simple job effectively. Also, I like that it blocks MFA spam attacks by disabling the Duo account after 10 failed attempts. I have had issues where a users credentials were compromised and they tried to spam the user with continuous MFA prompts and the 10 try rule stopped that attack.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our entire company uses Duo for quick and easy two-factor authentication.
  • Duo integrates seamlessly with all the platforms and apps our organization uses.
  • There is an easy mobile app that allows me to accept auth requests with one click.
  • I can use the Duo app for work as well as my personal accounts to ensure they are all kept secure with 2-factor authentication.
  • The mobile app often has alerts and pop-ups that get in my way if I'm looking to quickly accept an authentication ping.
  • The setting to 'send usage data' on the app is automatically enabled.
Duo is great for a growing company because it can integrate with your entire app suite and has an easy mobile app for when you're on the go.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Duo / Cisco Secure Access, by Duo] is used for TFA across the whole organization. This enables users to access the company intranet and document servers, even when working remotely, in a way that's protective of client information and document security and relatively convenient to access from a variety of different devices.
  • Simple interface
  • Ease of accessing TFA code
  • Reliability of service
  • Refreshing the TFA code can be a bit confusing
  • Setting up the account required coordination with IT folks
[Duo / Cisco Secure Access, by Duo] is a lightweight means of authenticating software logins without dealing with infinitely-stacking emails or text messages accomplishing the same purposes. It loads quickly and operates simply, with a nice clean UI. It accomplishes its narrow purpose clearly and efficiently.
Jerry Robinson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Duo Security is used to provide second form-factor authentication for remote access to our corporate information, either through Citrix or Cisco VPN. It is used by any authorized user across the enterprise controlled by membership in a specific active directory group. With Duo Security, we have addressed the need to ensure that access to our resources, specifically our EMR, is granted only to authorized individuals.
  • Duo Security allows a great deal of flexibility.
  • Duo Security allows a variety of ways to provide the authentication; push notification, SMS notification, or passcode.
  • Duo Security integrates with several applications and is simple to use.
  • Some of the reporting could could use improvement.
  • Log review could benefit from the addition of filters. As things are in the version I have, to see the detail I want, I often have to export the logs to CSV and create my own filters/sorting in Excel.
  • Duo Push doesn't always make it to the phone. Often this is due to poor data access on the part of the end user but, on rare occasion, data is available but the push notification doesn't make it. This results a timeout for the user causing login failure.
Duo Security is well suited for any organization that is subject to external compliance requirements or even those who simply want to be sure that the person accessing their network is who they say they are. Though we use it only for external connections, it could easily be used to validate internal connections.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cisco Secure Access by Duo allows our staff to securely access their cloud based and on premise accounts with a variety of authenticators. A major concern for our organization was the amount of compromised accounts due to password reuse. Duo has allowed us to secure those accounts from misuse and compromise by requiring a second factor of authentication.
  • Multifactor authentication
  • Secure account access
  • Breach prevention
  • Endpoint and web software unified
Cisco Secure Access with Duo has been simple and quick to deploy within our entire organization. It is well suited for any employee accessing any corporate account, whether that be on premise or cloud based. Cisco Secure Access with Duo can be used to secure every single account from credential stuffing or remote takeover by threat actors.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cisco Secure Access to secure applications using MFA and support SSO access to improve user experience and security.
  • MFA
  • SSO
  • Device trust
  • Provisioning to cloud and on premise applications
Duo provides high level of security and works well supporting MFA and SSO. Comparing to other solutions like Okta, it is missing capabilities like provisioning and user life cycle management capabilities.
June 09, 2023

Cisco Secures

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Cisco makes work safer by ensuring security on the road and in the office and by providing the right access to the right teams. Securing access with MFA secures the critical data.
  • MFA
  • SSO
  • Remote Access
  • Integrate into third party apps
Remote verification access.
June 07, 2023

Great 2FA

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Duo has provided a necessary improvement to our security infrastructure by proving not only a 2 Factor Authentication option, but also a way to perform authentication features such as RADIUS and RBAC for our LDAP user base.

Duo is very important because of its closed source enablement, as well as its ability to tie into 2FA for other sites and services which allow it.
  • LDAP integration
  • 2FA third party
  • User management
  • More support for third party apps
  • TAC ACS support
  • API support
Very well suited for transitioning Ms o365 from basic to 2fa. We used it for this.

Enhanced security for users and any data on your system or domain that requires logins.

Add an extra layer of security.

would be nice to see a standardized offsite offline method for 2fa logins
Gary Rosling | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cisco Secure Access by Duo is being used by our organization to improve the security of our systems and data. It provides excellent tools for protecting confidential information and preventing unauthorized access. The solution allows users to authenticate using a combination of password and a second authentication factor, which increases the security of our accounts and systems. In our organization, it has been implemented as a comprehensive security solution to ensure secure employee access to key applications and resources. The ability to integrate Cisco Secure Access by Duo with our existing infrastructure, including SSO systems and SaaS applications, has been instrumental in improving efficiency and security in our organization.
  • Integration with multiple systems
  • Customization of access policies
  • Detailed security reports
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Offline authentication option
  • Lack of support for some lesser known devices
  • Difficulty in initial configuration
This platform is well suited to protect access to critical applications and sensitive resources, especially those with employees working remotely. Multifactor authentication and adaptive access policies ensure a high level of security to prevent unauthorized access and potential data breaches.
November 30, 2022

Duo is easy as pie!

Kelsi Nuttle | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as our authentification app for two-step MFA authentication for our SSO. It is an easy program that sends you a notification to your phone when you're signing in and allows you to press approve or deny. It also has the ability to provide you a code to enter depending on which program we are using it for.
  • SSO
  • MFA Authentification
  • Two-step authentification
  • Back-up codes
  • Easier addition of other sites
I have used both Duo and Google Authentication apps and Duo is the much easier of the two to use. It is simple and will send you push notifications. My only knock is sometimes it is hard to add new sites to the app for two-step authentication. If the site has it set up easily, then it's fine but sometimes it is difficult if the other provider doesn't make it a simple process.
Melissa Benson, MAT | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Duo Mobile at work and with my university to keep accounts secure. I am prompted when logging in to verify it is me gaining access. I do this daily at work and periodically at school. The organizations have different parameters for how often you need to use it based on their security policies. Most of the time the app prompts me to answer with a checkmark or red x. Occasionally I have to restart the app to see the prompt.
  • user-friendly
  • large interface is easy to read
  • noise alert
  • occasional glitches
This is a great tool to keep your access secure. It is probably expensive since the organizations I have used it for are large corporations and universities but as I am not a decision maker I really have no idea if my inference is correct or not. It is easy to understand and since the interface is large that is a great accessibility feature.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used to secure our VPN connection and internet access from corporate laptops used remotely. One can log in to the laptop, but not access the internet (and, subsequently, corporate resources) until the VPN connection is made via Cisco Secure Access by Duo. It provides a key security layer that became essential once the organization went remote at the beginning of COVID.
  • Speed - it's fast with almost no delay between triggering the MFA request and receiving the notification on an iPhone
  • Security - in addition to the added MFA layer, a simple, 4-digit passcode can be added to the authentication request
  • Ease of use - it doesn't scare users. It's simple to install, configure, and use.
  • Perhaps doing away with the pass code in favor of bio-metric authentication would be even simpler for users.
  • Offering a timer that counts down to the expiry date of the authentication request would be ideal, and may prevent some stress.
  • Very nit-picky here, but cutting down on the number of "clicks" required to authenticate would be better. I mentioned bio-metric authentication, perhaps adding this to the lock-screen of the phone would be the ultimate simplicity.
Any business seeking to secure access to their corporate resources by adding that additional authentication layer. It's essential now - phishing scams are rampant and are generally unstoppable. Remote work is the norm and, whether it's hybrid or fully remote, it needs to be controlled. Cisco Secure Access by Duo is a simple, lightweight, and highly effective method of achieving what is quickly becoming "table-stakes" in the cyber security realm.
September 13, 2022

Amazing authentication tool

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cisco secure access by duo is a two-factor authentication app that protects the company and its customers. It limits access to sensitive data for all users and helps keep it safe. By authenticating it our company makes sure the data is safe from anywhere. It’s easy to use and administer. The user can set up their phone number so they can authenticate and make it safe for everyone
  • Security
  • Protects sensitive data
  • Easy to use
  • Accessing sensitive client information
  • Logging in to the VPN system and email
  • Avoiding hackers and securing the network
Every day I log in to my computer, I have to use Cisco to make sure it’s me who is accessing the sensitive data. Since we deal with financial information in our company it is crucial to make sure everyone is using the two-factor authentication method provided. It doesn’t take long and you can use it anywhere in the US and abroad
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