Understanding Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Our Business Development Manager, Jordan, explains what MFA is and what solutions can make MFA really easy to implement within your business.

Understanding 2FA and MFA

Both 2FA and MFA are much more secure forms of authentication than single-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication (2FA) identifies users based on two factors before granting access, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides two or more different factors before system access.

The Three Types of MFA

Knowledge – Things you know like passwords, pins, code words and answers to questions.

Possession – Things you have, such as a device.

Inherence – Things you are, like a fingerprint or voice reignition.

MFA is widespread across many industries, especially finance and industries that capture confidential information. It can be easy to forget smaller businesses are just as likely to suffer from attacks as large organisations. Here are the top reasons to make adopting an MFA policy a priority.

Improves Security

Using MFA improves security should a hacker obtain a user’s username and password, as that alone isn’t enough to gain access. It can also be regarded as an alert system that a breach is taking place.

Ideal for Remote Working

It is essential for working from home, the office, or both. The increase in the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks, can make businesses an easy target for hackers. An MFA protects employees in the office or home from all sides.

Mitigates the Effects of Phishing

Multi-factor authentication makes tactics like phishing extremely difficult to pull off. Often the hacker will target individual users with the intent of conning them for information. Without appropriate security training, many employees will fall for the trick. However, hackers have a much tougher time with MFA in place.

Ultimately it keeps cybercriminals outside of your network. GHM recommend going beyond 2-factor authentication. Our MFA solution reduces the likelihood of network disruption and data breaches from lost or stolen credentials and delivers important cloud capability for easy set-up and management.

You can speak with our IT Support team at any time. We are always happy to help and advise.