Multi-Factor Authentication

Passwords get compromised, but changing them regularly is hard work.

Instead, try multi-factor authentication in your business to prevent email and data breaches.

If a hacker manages to get into your email account, there’s endless scope for fraud and major business headaches:

• Personal data breaches
• Fake invoices being sent out
• Identity theft
• CEO payment fraud
• False payment detail updates
• Password harvesting

Your reputation and bank balance is at risk if your email accounts are not secure.

The reality is that many people re-use simple passwords, and nobody wants to change them regularly. So, consider multi-factor authentication to improve the overall security of your email accounts and allow simpler and easy-to-remember passwords to be used safely.

When accessing email from a new device or location, users will be asked for both a password AND a one-time passcode which is only valid for around 30 seconds.

The passcode is generated using an app on that person’s smartphone, or can be sent via text message (SMS) to a mobile phone.

This approach has one big advantage: if an email account password becomes known to a hacker, they remain UNABLE to access the account. Why? Because they do not have the mobile phone, which is the only means of generating a valid login code.

We call this muti-factor authentication because there is a password (the first factor) plus the one-time passcode (the second factor). It would be possible to find other means of verifying your identity even further still, but 2-factor authentication as in this scenario is a relatively simple and highly effective approach.