Multifactor Authentication Now Essential

With increased security breaches two factor authentication (2FA) is no longer a "nice to have" feature but viewed as a necessity by the Computer Culture Security Team. We wish to actively promote this with our clients to reduce your risk of falling foul to security threats.

If unaware, multi-factor authentication is a method in which a computer user is granted access only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism: knowledge, possession, and inherence.

As an example in practical terms, this means approving a request on your phone when signing in to your Office 365 account for the first time on a new device. Therefore if someone obtains your password, they cannot get in to your account without your phone.

Banks and other data critical organisations have already implemented this method. In a ZDNet web article this week Group Program Manager for Identity Security and Protection at Microsoft is quoted as saying "Based on our studies, your account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised if you use MFA." Automated attacks now are a considerable risk for all organisations.