Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is becoming more and more widely used as a way to further prevent unauthorised individuals from accessing private data. As the name suggests, it combines multiple ways of authenticating a user in order to confirm their identity.
Due to the layered approach of MFA, it is the most secure way to protect your data and, due to its use across business, educational, and personal settings, there are lots of providers who can easily integrate it into your routine. Big companies such as Google and Microsoft have created apps to enable MFA, both of which can incorporate biometric verification (facial recognition or fingerprint recognition) which also provide an additional layer of security. Companies such as PayPal use SMS verification, ensuring that the individual needs both their password and their phone to access their funds.
MFA essentially mandates a complete lack of trust in any login or device, meaning that a second form of confirmation is required for authentication. Because many of the largest security risks are password-based, either through password repetition (just under three quarters of passwords are reused across multiple accounts) or old user logins which may still be active, multifactor authentication ensures an additional layer of protection to each account.
So, the simple answer is: if you want to be more secure, you need to use multi-factor authentication. Through the use of these factors, often knowledge (answering a question or knowing a password), possession (having something specific in the user’s possession), and inherence (often biometrical factors such as facial recognition), it becomes exponentially more difficult for unauthorised parties to access your data or system.
While passwords may be the first thing you think of when you protect your account, they’re increasingly ineffective in protecting against attacks. According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, stolen login credentials was the top method used by hackers to gain unauthorised access. Multi Factor Authentication, then, is the most effective and most straightforward way to prevent you and your data.
At Corona IT Solutions our IT services proactively work to protect your organisation from the inside out and safeguard against the latest threats and vulnerabilities. If you would like to find out more about our security solutions and how they might help your business, please contact us.
