You’ve heard it a million times, look out for fake links, bad actors, people asking for passwords, don’t enter your password anywhere but your own devices and applications and when you do make sure to use 2 factor authentication.
MSP’s or Managed Service Providers like Skycomp Solutions do everything we possibly can to prevent a cyber security attack. But it always comes down to one user making a mistake.
You can have all the firewalls, spam-blockers, and preventative measures in place. But if you don’t have multifactor authentication setup in your organization, you will always run the risk of allowing hackers to crack passwords, find usernames, and gain access to your company’s data.
Let’s explain what multifactor authentication is:
Multifactor authentication is multiple ways of confirming the person logging into an account – is who they say they are.
You may have this already setup. A common Multifactor is having a password setup on your computer, as well as a fingerprint scanner. You must enter a password AND scan your finger for it to be Multifactor.
*If you just have use one this is just single-factor authentication – or saying it in ‘English’ just logging into your password protected computer. That is not enough security believe it or not…
What does multifactor authentication do?
To put it simply, when a hacker has your username or password, not both, they just must guess one to gain access to your account, or if for some reason you followed an unsafe link and typed in your login information into a phishing email. The hacker that is at the other end receiving your login info would still have to gain access to cell phone or physical fingerprint scanner to access your account. Then your IT department or MSP could flag the login and block the IP address.
There are a lot more steps behind this process of hacking and finding your password. It’s easier than you might think – if you’re not careful. But if you have advice from and MSP or IT department… follow it.
As you can imagine working from home has cause many issues with multifactor authentication, usually people in a cyber secure office space use a token – which is a physical USB key that generates a 5–9-digit number that links to an account to provide a different login code every few seconds.
If this seems complicated – don’t worry your IT department or MSP can set it up for you…
This is one way to ensure security, there are many other ways to setup multifactor authentication. Physical Tokens, Phone Tokens, Pin numbers, eye scanners – yes you could be like James Bond every day.
Make sure you choose the right setup for your organization – speak to and IT professional or if you have 10-100 employees maybe Skycomp is a fit for you?
Reach out to Skycomp Solutions at Skycomp.ca/contact.