Why you should be using multifactor authentication for all your online accounts (2024)

FAQs

Why you should be using multifactor authentication for all your online accounts? ›

Protects You from Potential Account Takeovers

MFA Enables Stronger Authentication

It adds another layer of protection from the kinds of damaging attacks that cost organizations millions. A security breach caused by a weak user password would understandably have huge consequences for both the company and the customers who trust it.

Why Use MFA? Cybercriminals have more than 15 billion stolen credentials to choose from. If they choose yours, they could take over your bank accounts, health care records, company secrets, and more. Multi-factor authentication is important, as it makes stealing your information harder for the average criminal.

By discovering one password, access can potentially be gained to multiple accounts for which you might have reused the password. Multi-factor authentication acts as an additional layer of security to prevent unauthorized users from accessing these accounts, even when the password has been stolen.

Two-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security to the authentication process by making it harder for attackers to gain access to a person's devices or online accounts because, even if the victim's password is hacked, a password alone is not enough to pass the authentication check.

The primary objective of multi-factor authentication is to reduce the risk of account takeovers and provide additional security for users and their accounts. Since over 80% of cyber breaches happen due to weak or stolen passwords, MFA can provide added layers of security necessary to protect users and their data.

Used on top of the regular username/password verification, 2FA bolsters security by making it more difficult for intruders to gain unauthorized access, even if a perpetrator gets past the first authentication step (e.g., brute forces a username and password).

Without MFA, a cybercriminal only needs to crack or guess your password once to gain unauthorized access to your personal information, financial data, or even steal your identity. 2. Phishing Attacks: Phishing has become a pervasive and constantly evolving threat.

These measures add an extra layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification before granting access to an account or system. Adding MFA is a great way for businesses to cut down on unauthorized access, even if passwords get stolen.

What are the benefits of having an MFA? ›

MFA offers significantly more powerful security and protection against criminals. They might manage to steal one proof of identity such as your PIN, but they still need to obtain and use the other proofs of identity to access your account.

2FA is essential to web security because it immediately neutralizes the risks associated with compromised passwords.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), a cornerstone of security solutions, protects networks and systems against illegal entry. This security solution protects organizations and users against typical cyber attacks and restricts intrusion, so that essential resources are only available to authorized users.

Some people worry that multifactor authentication is going to be really inconvenient, but generally it's only used the first time you sign into an app or device, or the first time you sign in after changing your password. After that you'll just need your primary factor, usually a password, like you do now.

The main benefit of MFA is it will enhance your organization's security by requiring your users to identify themselves by more than a username and password. While important, usernames and passwords are vulnerable to brute force attacks and can be stolen by third parties.

Signing in with both a password and a second step on your phone protects against password-stealing scams. Even if someone gets your password online, they won't also have your phone.

With multi-factor authentication, users are required to provide more than one piece of verifiable information to authenticate. MFA was designed to add additional layers of security to sensitive information. Note that 2FA is also considered MFA because more than one credential is required to sign on.