What is Multi-Factor Authentication and Why Should You Care?

publish date: February 24, 2021

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides an extra, and today a crucial, necessary level of protection for your organization’s network. It has been shown conclusively, and countless times, that adding an extra authentication factor helps reduce the risk of unauthorized access to systems and data.

Traditionally, in order for someone to gain access to a network, system, or even an application, they have needed an assigned username, or user id, along with a password. Unfortunately, passwords can be easily guessed or cracked.

Multi-factor authentication protects your applications by using a second source of validation, like a phone or token, to verify user identity before granting access.

That old user id/password regimen, which has been fairly effective at closing an organization’s window of vulnerability, no longer provides the same protection it once did. In fact, with only the user id/password model, most companies’ windows are pretty much wide open. So how do you close your window of vulnerability?

Thankfully, MFA helps, a lot. In fact, CISA (the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has suggested that adding an extra factor to an organization’s authentication protocol helps that window become more than 90% closed. While there are no 100% guarantees, MFA does a great job at preventing unauthorized access.

To learn more about how your company can implement an MFA solution, contact us. We can provide authentication tools that are both user and budget-friendly. You’ll be surprised at how good, and how cost-effective, it is to add a second factor to authenticate your users!