Increased Cyber-Crime is here to stay.
MFA (multi-factor authentication) and 2FA (two-factor) authentication provides additional layers of security to your devices, networks, and cloud-based resources and are quickly becoming the standard such as anti-virus has for protecting technology-based assets at home or in the office. Most technology users already have a service such as Google or a bank that asks to enable or requires MFA or 2FA technologies to protect their information and accounts adequately. It is a relatively painless process that dramatically reduces the risk of an account being breached even if the credentials or a device has been stolen. The compromised user still has to allow the login to proceed, or the hacker is required to know a rolling code that only the compromised user has access to.
Quickly becoming a must.
Many insurance companies are now requiring businesses to deploy MFA or 2FA on the technology resources to protect against the ever-growing threat of cyber-attacks and account breaches. The FBI Internet Crime Report 2020 shows you the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic shutdown doubling the reported attacks in 2020. 2021 has seen a surge of 400% for ransomware attacks as well as cyber-crimes. This has created the expectation that 49% of businesses can expect a data breach or cyber-security incident due to having a remote or mobile workforce. Banks, too, have seen an increase of 238% in cyber-attacks linked to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Less than half or about 40% of cyber security professionals say their companies are using best practices to secure the remote workforce. These attacks amount to billions in losses annually, with many businesses failing in relation to an attack or personal bankruptcies.
Getting protected.
These attacks can all be stopped primarily by enabling MFA or 2FA at home and work. If a web service or vendor has MFA or 2FA available for their login process, we strongly recommend that you enable it. Office365, Amazon Prime, Google, and many others now offer MFA or 2FA to help secure your accounts and login processes. We at Cepheus Solutions use DUO to protect our workstations, servers, Outlook Web Access (OWA), Connectwise Automate, our website, and VPN. With the DUO app on our phones, we are instantly notified when our user account tries to log in, and we can approve or deny the login attempt. In addition to our network, all vendors we work with have the MFA or 2FA enabled to ensure our accounts and finances remain secure.
If you have questions or comments or would like Cepheus Solutions to secure your technology assets, please feel free to drop a comment, email, or call us to get more personalized information about protecting yourself or your business. Have a great day, and stay safe in the online world.
Links used in writing this article.
https://fraud.org/data-breach-epidemic/reduce_breach_risk/
https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2020_IC3Report.pdf/
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