As an increasing number of people and organizations move into working remotely from home due to the pandemic, the online activity of hackers and cybercriminals have also increased rapidly in record numbers during the past few months. Some of the main reasons that has led to compromised online logins were due to weak passwords and re-using the same password for multiple online accounts, hence a strong and unique password is very important. However, a password itself is not secure enough and therefore implementation of Multi-factor or Two-factor Authentication (MFA/2FA) will add an extra layer of security to your account.
Authentication Techniques
Multi-factor Authentication is a security measure that requires users to provide multiple forms of identification to prove who they are to gain access to an application or an account. MFA and 2FA employs various forms of authentication techniques, such as biometrics which involves fingerprint or facial recognition, or just a one-time security code generated by a user’s smartphone.
Additional Security
In addition to these methods, a password may still be required by most applications. Therefore, having a strong password that is hard to guess is still important, for example including a mix of alphanumeric characters, uppercase letters, and numerical digits.
Adoption Process
Unfortunately, the adoption of multi-factor authentication has always been a slow process. This is because the MFA authentication techniques can be too complicated for some users and slower than the old school method of just login in with a username and password.
Despite these minor inconveniences MFA/2FA is the most reliable solution recommended by most IT professionals and large companies like Microsoft when it comes to protecting your personal information, and we too at Managed Services Australia takes the utmost care in protecting our customers by implementing and educating about the importance of MFA as an additional security measure.
