Why Multi-factor Authentication Should Be Your Next Project

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019

The rush to protect your business from cybercriminals and augment your security is a beehive of activities. Organizations have to get the right software, install antiviruses, augment their firewalls, encrypt all processes and do frequent troubleshooting to check for loopholes.

And after doing all that, they often forget one security wall that can go a long way in protecting their bottom line— multi-factor authentication (MFA). But failure to recall, negligence or ignorance is not an option in an ecosystem where fraudsters are ever on the hunt for new prey.

On top of the normal passwords, multifactor authentication requests a user, to provide an additional passcode which is sent to their cellphone. That means a fraudster cannot penetrate your systems unless they also have access to your phone, which is very unlikely.

A thoughtful and easy-to-implement security strategy is to spot the systems that give way-into private and confidential business info and add multifactor verification to those. Implementation is cheap and hassle-free, yet you get to monitor your systems more proactively because any attempt to log in must be authenticated by your phone.

Why you should adopt MFA in Your Business

Discover some reasons why implementing MFA is a good idea.

1. Identity fraud is a threat to any business, from startups, to SMBs, to large established enterprises. It is among the most common and increasingly growing forms of fraud.
2. Stolen customer or business data are the fraudster’s favorite, making up over 90 percent of all Web application cybercrimes.
3. The number of attacks where fraudsters managed to steal data jumped almost 30 percent between 2013 and 2014, which is a sign business aren’t doing enough to protect themselves.
4. Only attacks on big brands get media coverage. But established companies are not the only ones at risk. A whole 30 percent of all targeted breaches went after businesses with a workforce of less than 250 staff.
5. One-step verification makes your systems vulnerable. Multifactor authentication, however, makes it difficult for cyber thieves to hold successful attacks.
6. Password mugging or stealing tactics are changing as tricksters adopt techniques like phishing, pharming, and key-logging.
7. You do not only risk losing data to intruders. Once, they’ve penetrated your systems, fraudsters can destroy databases, install malicious software, and do all sorts of crime through your server.
8. Customers and employees are used to multistep authentication in their daily activities. They won’t have a problem if you introduce MFA step-by-step and explain its critical role in ensuring security.

Creating awareness and a step-by-step shift to multifactor authentication can ensure a smooth transition and eliminate misunderstanding among employees or reduce customer churn.

To wrap up

Security does not have to involve the installation of complex and costly software. Multifactor verification, despite its ease of implementation and cheap budget, has proven to be a more active way to secure your systems than many known layers of security.