In the year 2023, most of us should have experienced some form of multi-factor authentication. Within the past five years or so, you’ve probably felt like an intruder in your own Google account when prompted to confirm with your phone that it is really you.
But is feeling like you’re being interrogated really necessary to keep your information safe? How effective is it at actually ensuring your online security?
Before gaining access to an account, MFA requires you to verify your identity with two or more authentication factors. Typically, a combination of something you know, something you have, and some form of biometric factor is required. For example, you could present a PIN, a smart card, and a fingerprint verify your identity. With each additional step, the login process becomes more secure.
As technology advances, so does the need for online security, especially if you are a business or corporation that collects customer information. That data is extremely sensitive and also very profitable in the wrong hands. Implementing MFA makes it more difficult for an unauthorized person to gain access and steal that information. This is an additional layer of protection in case passwords or PINs are compromised through phishing attacks or other methods.
Seeing over 300 million fraudulent sign-in attempts a day, Microsoft reports that the use of Multi-Factor Authentication prevents 99.9% of those automated attacks. “Based on our studies, your account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised if you use MFA,” says Alex Weinert, Group Program Manager for Identity Security and Protection at Microsoft. Passwords alone are not enough anymore; hackers have many methods to obtain users’ credentials. Though rare, the 0.1% accounts for more sophisticated attacks that use technical solutions to capture MFA tokens.
So, if you want to guarantee that your online identity is safe from being hacked, enable Multi-Factor Authentication! You can rest assured that your data is safe, knowing that it is 99.9% more secure than just using password protection.
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