In post-password activities, robust web security depends on the dynamic approach developed from a range of tools and policies. It is imperative to eliminate the dependency on a single solution for holistic protection. This implies two things, namely,
- It is time to upgrade if you currently depend on passwords alone, with multi-factor authentication (MFA) being your first step.
- The MFA is more effective when utilized as a part of the coordinated strategy of security policies and applications.
Organizations are embracing cloud transformation for both reducing operational costs and modernizing the IT environment. As the cloud matures, the comfort of companies to move more of their infrastructure into a hosted environment rises.
Resolutions of Multi-Factor Authentication Go Beyond Compromisation of Passwords
With multi-factor authentication, the protection of an entire application is not dependent on a single password, but it combines the password, security token, and biometric verification. A Microsoft study indicates that MFA protects against 99.9% of malicious attacks. This applies to every user profile in any digital application.
Multi-factor authentication not only protects the applications but also offers a seamless user experience. This further eliminates the responsibility of handling complex passwords, in turn enabling greater user experiences. This also makes the user feel safe about accessing the app that is secure and will guard against identity theft. Several options exist for that extra authentication layer, which doesn’t compromise on experience, and these options include OTP, answering a security question, eye/fingerprint scan, USB hardware token, or using a VPN device.
Why is MFA (Multi Factor Authentication) Important?
A true multi-factor authentication is governed aspects from distinct categories. For example, the combination of a password and challenge question will not be considered as true MFA, because it utilizes two factors related to the category – “something you know.” Without leveraging a true MFA, the user accounts are more prone to hacker attacks. What’s even worse, according to Microsoft, only 10% or fewer users use MFA. The rate of compromise in accounts protected by multi-factor authentication is lower than 0.1%. Implementation of MFA needs a physicality, which most hackers do not have access to. This is the primary reason why MFA is able to protect almost all privileged accounts from credential-based attacks.
It is imperative to understand that multi-factor authentication is not the silver bullet for every possible attack on accounts. Improper MFA implementations result in the reduction or elimination of its effectiveness. It is, therefore, necessary to implement multi-factor authentication along with other protections. These include vendor privileged access management for third-party vendors and privileged access management for internal credentials.
The Near-Future of MFA
The market for multi-factor authentication continues to spiral up, as the demand for a more secure digital payment grows stronger. The threats are ever prevalent and continue to expand, with the number of massive data breaches and phishing attacks increasing due to weak security systems.
As the demand for MFA increases, new factor methods are being added by the vendors for making their product easier to blend in with custom corporate. The surging popularity of the smartphone authentication applications, improving the integration of authentication, and the continuous evolution of biometrics, are some of the key trends that will buoy the adoption of MFA in the foreseeable future.