Permissions for users and two factor authentication are an essential part of a strong security system. They can reduce the chance that malicious insiders will take action, limit the impact on data breaches and assist in ensuring that you meet regulatory requirements.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) requires the user to provide credentials from different categories – something they are familiar with (passwords, PIN codes and security questions), something they own (a one-time verification code that is sent to their phone or authenticator app) or even something they’re (fingerprints or a retinal scan). Passwords are no longer sufficient to safeguard against hacking techniques. They can be hacked or shared, or compromised through phishing attacks, on-path attacks as well as brute force attacks and so on.
For accounts that are highly sensitive like online banking and tax filing websites email, social media and cloud storage, 2FA is vital. Many of these services are available without 2FA, but making it available for the most sensitive and important ones provides an additional security layer that is difficult to defeat.
To ensure the effectiveness of 2FA cybersecurity professionals have to review their authentication strategy regularly to account for new threats and improve user experience. Some examples of this are phishing attacks that deceive users into sharing their 2FA numbers or “push bombing,” which overwhelms users with multiple authentication requests, causing users to approve erroneous ones due to MFA fatigue. These challenges, as well as others, require an evolving security solution that gives an overview of user log-ins in order to detect suspicious activity in real-time.