The Basics of Multi-Factor Authentication

In today's digital world, the threat of cyberattacks is very real and can strike anyone at any time. The thought of personal and business sensitive information being compromised by a hacker is a scary one, and it's something that everyone has to take seriously. In recent years, we've seen countless examples of companies losing customers' trust and business due to successful phishing attacks that compromised their customers' data.

Did you know that there were at least 3.4 billion phishing attacks per day in 2019, according to the Valimail report?

But there is hope. By using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), you can add an extra layer of protection to your customers accounts and significantly reduce the risk of them being compromised. In this blog post, we'll explore what MFA is, how it works, and why it's essential for business in current digital age.

What is MFA and why it is crucial?

The standard username and password authentication can be easily compromised. Users tend to use weak passwords, reuse the same passwords across multiple sites, and their hardware may be infected with malware. All these vulnerabilities can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information or executing operations, resulting in significant financial or reputational damage.

MFA offers an additional layer of security by requiring users to provide at one more form of authentication besides password. Thanks to multiple factors used for authentication, MFA greatly mitigates the likelihood of unauthorized access and illicit use of the user account, giving protection from phishing, keyloggers, brute force attacks, man in the middle attacks and credential leaks. This protection can be used to secure both your employees, and your customers.

In addition by increasing security, MFA can also enhance a business's credibility through demonstrating a commitment to protecting customer data and privacy. This will lead to increased customer trust and loyalty among the aware users, ultimately resulting in improved business performance.

Should I use MFA for my business processes?

MFA can greatly enhance the security of your business processes. It is always recommended to implement it whenever possible, but there are some questions that can help you make a definite decision.

Firstly, are you legally obligated to provide an MFA?

There are some security directives, such as PSD2 or eIDAS, that may require you to ensure a valid level of customer identification before performing certain actions.

Secondly, does your business process involve irreversible changes or access to sensitive information?

If your system could lead to some unrepairable changes like transferring money to an external account, or if it involves revealing sensitive information like medical or financial data, then it definitely should be secured with MFA.

Lastly, do you need additional confirmation of user identity?

In some cases, you may want to be 100% sure that the user executing the action is really the one who should do it. One of the most common instances of this is the process of changing and resetting passwords.

It is also important to follow some golden rules - always secure backoffice operations, and give the opt-in option for MFA for the general audience.

Backoffice operations and administration panels, especially those where illicit access could lead to huge data leaks or company losses, should always be secured with MFA. This is even more crucial if they are publicly accessible over the internet.

You shoul also give users the option to enable MFA during login to your application. As already mentioned this will be a nod to users who are already aware of security, but it will prove even greater value when it will be linked with educating users by encouraging them to use the MFA process for their own security, and explaining the risks of not using it.

What are caveats of MFA?

While MFA adds an extra layer of security, it's important to understand that it comes with some additional costs.

Primarily it adds complexity to the process, which impacts user experience, and can be viewed as a nuisance among some user groups because of their low security awareness. It may even become a barrier for some users.

Besides added complexity of the process it leads also to increased implementation costs - need for additional development, costs of licenses, maintenance and in some cases hardware tokens that have to be provisioned to every user.

Another big issue is that incorrectly designed or implemented MFA processes can lead to false sense of security. There are many documented cases where bugs in custom implementation of MFA have led to successful hacker attacks on the companies. 

Why Craftspire is the right choice?

At Craftspire, we understand the importance of security and have years of experience in implementing secure web applications with end-user convenience in mind. Before implementing any solution we will analyze the profile of your system users, and chose the best approach to implementing MFA.

By incorporating MFA, you can ensure that your customers' sensitive information is kept secure and provide them with peace of mind. Trust us to help you choose and implement the right MFA process that suits your business needs.