Trust Nobody: Multi-factor Authentication Is Your Digital Bike Helmet

Would you go on holiday leaving doors and windows wide open? What about parking at the supermarket, not locking your car and hanging a large “pick me” sign on it?

Would you be happy with one of your children not wearing a helmet on their new bike?

To protect our belongings and those we’re responsible for we do things for our own comfort and peace of mind. We do our best to minimise the likelihood of something bad happening.

So why do so many businesses not implement MFA, multi-factor authentication on all their software?

Sure it’s a hassle. And you have to agree with people who say it takes time going through the extra step.

Really??

I guess you only need to turn on multi-factor authentication the day before you’re hacked. If only we were to know that a bot had easily acquired our email address and was running through millions of password combinations while you’re asleep. It might get lucky after only a few thousand attempts at one hit every second.

Once it’s in, it can check out other apps you routinely log into, and chances are you’re like most people, using the same password for several apps.

At work and once in, any business app or database the user has access to is immediately at risk. But wait! There’s more. There’s the added risk that when one employee’s password is discovered, the same bot or person can use the stolen credentials to wreak more havoc, more easily tricking others into accepting links from the legitimate looking sender. You’ll respond to a meeting invite that looks completely innocuous. “Please review this document before the meeting”.

Ouch!

In a world where increasingly we’re learning that “Trust nobody” is more than just a saying, please enable MFA in your workplace.

At Abtrac we’re taking cybersecurity seriously.

You should be too.