The facts about why MFA is so important to your business
Created in collaboration with Brad Jepson, service team lead at Networks Plus
“All I want to do is pay my credit card bill online, but I can’t do that without jumping through, what feels like, a hundred hoops to prove it’s me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the financial institution wants to protect my information, but seriously, who besides me is going to make that payment?? I don’t understand why I have to wait for the text message or phone call to get a code when I have already entered my password. Can someone please just tell me the point of this?!?”
If this has ever crossed your mind, you aren’t alone. Multi-factor authentication, more commonly referred to as MFA, essentially adds an additional layer of security to your account. Simply put, it requires two or more factors to prove who you are, what you know, or what you have, in order to authenticate your account.
While it may seem superfluous, it is becoming quite imperative to adhere to the requests. The truth is, cybersecurity threats are so advanced it is no longer a question of if your credentials get hacked, it’s when. Just take a moment to let that sink in. This isn’t just your Facebook or Instagram page getting hacked. Sure, that would be an inconvenience, but what about the big stuff? What about your credit cards? Your personal or business banking account? Your social security number? Your client’s data? What price would you place on your company’s reputation? When you have MFA in place and a hacker gains access to your password but does not have access to your fingerprint or your cell phone – they cannot gain access to your accounts. All of a sudden that extra step in paying your credit card bill no longer seems pointless, does it?
Hacking isn’t something that is centralized to a particular demographic or region, either. It is quickly becoming a global issue and therefore, MFA is also being adopted all over the world. It is becoming increasingly important for businesses and organizations to add MFA to their cybersecurity plan. Imagine if your company’s email accounts were continuously hacked. What would that do to your brand’s image?
When you think in terms of damage control, the hassles of push notifications seem minor in comparison, doesn’t it? Even if you don’t think you have critical data, the amount of downtime to recover from a breach is substantial. The Denver Post has even reported that a whopping 60 percent of small businesses who fall victim to a cyberattack are out of business within six months.
We realize that forcing your employees to enter codes multiple times a day can be overwhelming and time-consuming. The last thing a security measure should do is waste valuable time. However, the importance of implementing MFA is an inherent necessity. If your concern is causing frustration for your staff, there is a single sign-on (SSO) solution, which allows a single multi-factor authentication to allow access to any of your capable platforms.
As a group of cybersecurity experts, we don’t like things getting in our way of productivity either. Since downtime is really not an option for anyone, it is always best to add as many layers of protection as we can. Think about going outside in subzero temperatures. You dress in pants, socks, boots, a sweater, a coat, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. You’ve added layers of protection to your body to reduce the risk of external threats. MFA is essentially the same thing – only, applied to your data.
To learn more about MFA we invite you to contact us at 800-299-1704. We love to talk about cybersecurity – so make our day by giving us a call!