While you may think a password is secure enough, malicious actors are always trying ways to get hold of your data and information. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a modern way to protect yourself. Today we will be answering the question of what Multifactor is and why it is so important!
What is Multifactor Authentication?
Multifactor Authentication is when you use multiple different ways to confirm you are who you say you are. A password is a single way of authenticating yourself – it is something you know. Due to the nature of lengthy passwords, they can be hard to remember and are sometimes written down or reused, making them an easy taking for someone who wants to be able to access your account.
To harden your defences, adding another factor of authentication makes it much harder to crack into your account. These additions are generally regarded as being something that you have and something that you are.
What are different factors?
As said above, you can break the different factors into 3 main categories:
Something you have – This is something that you have in your possession that you can used to authenticate you. Suited to places where you may need to access areas that cannot be locked by PINs as they would need to be constantly changed. Examples are:
Swipe Cards
Tokens
Something you are – This is something that is unique to you. Examples are:
Fingerprint
Face identification
Something you know – This is something that you can memorise like a password. Examples are:
Password
PIN Code
Passphrase
Why you sure use it?
The reason that MFA should be used is that it ultimately protects your accounts in a way that doesn’t cause too much inconvenience. Protection and Convenience exist at opposites ends of the scale – you can really have both. But MFA is currently, the best way to manage it as well as keep your data safe.