Emergence of the new security breaches fueled by the broad availability of artificial intelligence make securing the information and communication infrastructures more of a challenge than ever before. The reality of the new digital era where security breaches seem to be daily news causes a growing pressure to find and deploy more adequate security measures. It is no longer acceptable to offer poor online authentication and identification, forcing users to choose between convenience and security.
Modern professionals are on the move all the time, thanks to mobile devices and a great proliferation of wireless connectivity. Not that different, the protection infrastructure should follow the same patterns. The new dynamic IT protection processes make defeating security more difficult.
However, available for many years, only recently that the Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) made its way to the security paradigms from businesses of all sizes and even individuals seeking better online and email protection. Given the ineffectiveness of passwords adoption of new security models is no longer a “nice to have” and rather a “must have” standard. Password belong to the dying static security data protection and should be augmented with additional security measures.
So how does modern IT security make sure users are whom they say they are? It combines any of the following authentication elements:
- Something you know: password, PIN, pattern, or any other verification based on information only the user should know;
- Something you have: like a smart card, key fob, a token to be presented during the authentication process;
- Something you are: i.e. a bio-metric attributes, including voice, fingerprint, retinal scan, etc.
With Two-factor Authentication (2FA), any of the two mentioned three authentication elements are used to provide a positive verification of a user’s identity. This is why the 2FA method is the most recommended as a best practice for protecting sensitive data and access points to private resources.
The easiest way to start with 2FA is to install Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authentication on your mobile device, to generate random tokens every 30 seconds. Then enroll your account for the enhanced security and enjoy your modern security protection that can give you more peace of mind. For example, if you use Gmail services, this article will explain how to sign up for 2FA to better protect your email account. The same would apply to protecting your corporate sensitive assets, like access to your email (Office 365), or to secure access to your Remote Desktops. Adding the 2FA to your IT infrastructure would go a long way of making your company’s security much harder to defeat.
Every day there are more applications, cloud services and websites allowing their users to take advantage of the 2FA authentication method. So now that you know what 2FA is, take it for a spin and don’t look back.
If you have any question I’ll be happy to answer them – Greg (905) 821-9215 ext.209