Inside Colgate’s security strategy: Protecting the digital face of a global brand

In a recent SC Media webcast, host Adrian Sanabria spoke with Alexander Schuchman, Chief Information Security Officer at Colgate-Palmolive Company, and Matthew Chiodi, Chief Strategy Officer at Cerby. They discussed how Cerby helped Colgate secure its digital front door, centralize control of social accounts, enforce MFA on shared logins, eliminated credential sprawl, and gave marketing teams the ability to manage social accounts securely. They'll also shared how the same approach now extends to disconnected apps like legacy systems and third-party portals.

As global brands increasingly interact with the public through digital channels, securing these touchpoints has become as critical as safeguarding traditional IT assets.

Schuchman highlighted the unique challenges large organizations like his face when managing hundreds of social media accounts across brands -- challenges compounded by frequent collaboration with outside agencies. Colgate experienced incidents where compromised accounts led to loss of content, unauthorized posts, and a damaging exodus of followers.

The root issue, he explained, is that social media accounts, while central to brand identity, often fall outside standard IT governance and identity management frameworks. Conventional solutions like Okta worked seamlessly for modern SaaS applications supporting protocols such as SAML, but social platforms—designed for consumers—lacked such integration, making secure, centralized control elusive.

The company’s partnership with Cerby enabled Colgate to bridge this gap. Through tight integration with Okta, Cerby provided a single sign-on experience for employees and agencies alike, introduced multi-factor authentication, audit trails, and automatic credential rotation, all without disrupting creative workflows.

Beyond immediate security benefits, Schuchman cited significant time savings and operational efficiencies. Marketing teams could swiftly switch between accounts with one click, and agencies could onboard or offboard personnel securely and immediately. This eliminated the risks of stagnant credentials and shadow access -- problems common when spreadsheets or insecure channels manage social media credentials.

The webcast concluded with practical advice for security leaders:

Schuchman's experience underscores the importance of evolving security programs to address both technical and organizational realities in the age of digital brand engagement.