Information security is something that most people don't think about until it is too late and there has been a breach in their data or systems.
An easy preventative measure to mitigate your risk of being compromised is to enable two factor authentication (2FA) or multi factor authentication (MFA) to the services and software that you use.
Multi factor authentication typically relies on three different components:
- Something you know
- Something you have
- Something you are
Something you know
This is the typical test that has been used of a long time. This is typically deployed as a password or secret phrase that you know that others do now. This allows the system to authenticate you and ensure that it is indeed you that are trying to gain access.
Something you have
This can be something that you are in possession of, that an imposter won't have access to. Examples of these are your mobile phone or a security token. These devices normally have a randomized code to indicate that the person is in possession of the device at that moment.
Something you are
This factor used to only be used in very secure facilities, where a biometric scanning option was available, for example a fingerprint scanner or a retina scanner. Fortunately most of the modern smart phones can perform finger print scanning or facial recognition with a good amount of accuracy, which makes this accessible to a much larger range of people.
Benefit
The main benefit of using multi factor authentication is that even if your password is compromised the attacker still can't gain access to your account or information, without also having access to the second or third authentication factor.
With more of your life and services moving to the internet and cloud, it becomes more important to protect yourself and your digital assets. Please active multi-factor authentication on your services for your own peace of mind.
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