MFA Verification Factors
Knowledge (what you know)
This verification type is the most common and typically requires the personal knowledge of the user. Passwords are a common type of this factor.
Possession (what you have)
This requires a key from the user to unlock their accounts. It can be a physical security token or one-time password that can only be used for a specific login session. Your cell phone is often treated as a verification factor, for example, as few of us are ever without them.
Inherence (what you are)
This requires users to confirm their identity through biometric methods like fingerprint, voice, face, or iris scans. In some cases, keystroke dynamics and behavioral biometrics may also be used.
MFA Explained.
A typical login includes a username and a password (one-factor authentication). Multi-factor authentication is an electronic authentication method that requires two or more authentication factors to prove identity.
Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA), one of the most common forms of multi-factor authentication, involves using passwords and a second token.
If you’ve ever logged into an online account and have been asked to send a SMS code to your phone or secondary email address to verify your identity, you’ve experienced multi-factor authentication.
What is Multi - Factor Authentication?
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds a layer to your cybersecurity strategy by requiring you to validate your identity with multiple verification processes. This includes answering security questions and presenting proof of identity, among others.
How does
Multi - Factor Authentication work?
Two-factor authentication uses two distinct authentication methods to safeguard an account. In addition to your
Passwords are increasingly easy to compromise. They can often be stolen, guessed, or hacked and a user might not even know someone is accessing their account. MFA adds a second layer of security, helping the account stay secure even if the password is compromised.
This second factor of authentication is separate and independent from a firm’s username and password. Standard login and password, the second authentication method often requires verification with a personal asset, such as a mobile phone.
Why is Multi - Factor Authentication Important?
Enabling this security measure makes it more difficult for cybercriminals to fraudulently log into your systems and access data. As a result, you are less likely to be a victim of theft or other types of fraud.
The Benefits of Multi - Factor Authentication
The ultimate benefit of multi-factor authentication for a business is heightened security protocols to protect your data.
Multi-factor authentication is more effective than a single identifier, like a password, because it provides an additional safeguard even if a password is compromised.
Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. The United States faces persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns that threaten the public sector, the private sector, and ultimately the American people’s security and privacy. The Federal Government must improve its efforts to identify, deter, protect against, detect, and respond to these actions and actors. The Federal Government must also carefully examine what occurred during any major cyber incident and apply lessons learned. But cybersecurity requires more than government action. Protecting our Nation from malicious cyber actors requires the Federal Government to partner with the private sector. The private sector must adapt to the continuously changing threat environment, ensure its products are built and operate securely, and partner with the Federal Government to foster a more secure cyberspace. In the end, the trust we place in our digital infrastructure should be proportional to how trustworthy and transparent that infrastructure is, and to the consequences we will incur if that trust is misplaced.
Following the President’s Executive Order, New Reports Outline Recommendations to Protect Consumers, Investors, Businesses, Financial Stability, National Security, and the Environment
The digital assets market has grown significantly in recent years. Millions of people globally, including 16% of adult Americans, have purchased digital assets—which reached a market capitalization of $3 trillion globally last November. Digital assets present potential opportunities to reinforce U.S. leadership in the global financial system and remain at the technological frontier. But they also pose real risks as evidenced by recent events in crypto markets. The May crash of a so-called stablecoin and the subsequent wave of insolvencies wiped out over $600 billion of investor and consumer funds.
President Biden’s March 9 Executive Order (EO) on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets outlined the first whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology.
FACT SHEET: White House Releases First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of
Digital Assets
Biden’s Executive Order on Cybersecurity Mandates MFA
President Biden Issues Executive Order Mandating Federal Agencies to Adopt Multi-Factor Authentication
June 17, 2021
By Rublon Authors
President Biden’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity is a decisive step to modernize cybersecurity strategies and minimize the damage caused by cyberattacks. The Executive Order mandates Federal agencies to adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA) within 180 days. Furthermore, a set of strong security standards will be employed all across the Federal government. The Executive Order recognizes the threats associated with both public and private sector entities, and introduces robust countermeasures; from a zero-trust security model, through more secure cloud services, to risk-based authentication, to data encryption.
t has been decided that small steps towards security are insufficient in the face of the increasing wave of cybercrimes that have shaken America in recent years. Remarkably, some security incidents could have been avoided had multi-factor authentication been used by the victims.
Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) Security Statistics
88%
DATA BREACHES
WERE DUE TO COMPROMISED PASSWORDS
73%
PEOPLE RE-USE
THEIR PASSWORDS ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS
99.9%
OF ALL HACKED ACCOUNTS DO NOT USE MULTI FACTOR AUTHENTICATION
90%
OF PASSWORDS CAN BE CRACKED IN LESS THAN 6 HOURS
1.2B
POTENTIAL CYBER THREATS ARE BLOCKED WITH MFA
EVERY FEW MINUTES
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