In today’s world, digitalization is all around us, penetrating every
field and embedding itself into our ways of life. From online
payments, access and rights management, to communications,
digitalization has become the new norm. While digitalization is great
news for consumers, it demands a lot from companies’ technical teams.
In addition to ensuring the health of the servers and providing
invaluable technical support to the rest of the organization, they now
need to shift their thinking to strategic security. The security
measures of yesteryear like firewalls, antiviruses and encryption
technology are no longer strong enough to block corporate attacks.
For tech developers and managers, this means categorizing business
systems based on critical access to data and adding additional layers
of protection to these systems. With tech, the complexity of networks
means that any change could set of a multitude of adjustments and
tweaks which could mean downtime. Tech developers and managers are
pressured to find ways to implement top levels of security without
affecting uptime, while simultaneously keeping costs low.
As more businesses are providing their services online and encouraging
their users to transact and make payments online, the need for
enhanced levels of security arises.
Stolen or weak credentials are a hacker’s preferred weapon in web
attacks
Anti-viruses and firewalls are not enough to ward off hackers –
user authentication is an essential layer
Password theft methods are evolving and methods like pharming,
phishing and keylogging are becoming more advanced
Users are already exposed to, and utilizing, various factors such
as ownership and biometric factors
The more users interact with, and transact with, businesses online,
the more concerns around the security of their data arise. It is not
enough to provide users a seamless user experience, it also needs to
be highly secure for the end user, yet easy and cost-effective for the
company to implement.
Sure, companies in the digital space may be confident that they follow
high levels of password security and safety like hashing, salting, and
other password recovery flow protection methods, but is that enough?
How do they ensure all the security measures their developers and
security teams have implemented can’t be bypassed? The answer is
Multifactor Authentication.
What is Multifactor Authentication?
Multifactor authentication, as the name suggests, is a user
verification method that requires users to provide two or more
factors, or verification methods, to confirm their identity.
Multifactor authentication gives tech developers and managers an easy,
quick and cost-effective way to enhance security of critical business
systems through tighter security controls, and identity protection to
defend against phishing scams, making it extremely difficult for a
data breach or exploitation of the login process to occur.
Multifactor authentication generally takes into account three main
factors:
Something you remember
This will be the single factor authentication measure most
companies already have in place, i.e. a username and password
Something you own
This will be something that each individual physically has on
them, i.e. their personal laptop or mobile phone.
Something you are
This is something that is unique to each individual that cannot be
replicated, i.e. their biometrics.
Implementing multifactor authentication would protect user data even
if password hashes have been hacked, or passwords have been leaked or
stolen. Multifactor authentication would require someone to, both,
know the password, as well as scan their biometric data or enter a
one-time password (OTP) received on a user’s owned device in order to
access their account.
Implementation Concerns
There are a couple of concerns around implementing multifactor
authentication.
The first relates to the operational aspect around developing an OTP
or TOTP generation tool. The risk and complexity involved in
developing a secure enough SMS or email-based OTP or device-based TOTP
generator leads companies to look at external service providers who
offer this solution.
The second relates to user experience. Many solutions require users to
download additional applications onto their devices, then jump between
applications in order to generate an OTP or TOTP. While this does mean
that the website or application is protected by multifactor
authentication, the user experience takes a big hit, which could
result in lost customers.
Another concern relates to scalability; as businesses grow, their user
bases grow as well, which means more stress on the servers, a higher
number of authentication requests, and even rule-based authentication
policies.
With LoginID, you do not need to take on these concerns. With a simple
API or SDK integration flow built for developers, you can set up a
secure multifactor authenticator in just one hour.
Final Thoughts
Tech developers and managers are under a lot of pressure to manage
their company’s demands and expectations, ensure the system and
network health, and implement high levels of security to protect these
systems. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving, coming up with new
complex ways to hack into corporate systems. Multifactor
authentication, like the solution provided by LoginID, gives
developers and security teams the confidence that the platforms,
systems, networks and users that they oversee are safeguarded against
external attacks, even if their teams are working remotely from
various locations, as many companies are. Even companies such as
Microsoft and Google, who have reported a high number of fraudulent
sign-in attempts on a daily basis, have circumvented these attempts by
implementing multifactor authentication.
As more companies are taking their commerce streams online, their
developers and security teams are under constant pressure to find the
best security solutions out there. Solutions like LoginID aid seamless
adoption of a high-end, easy to implement security system with
built-in tools and best practice recommendations so companies can hit
the ground running and rest easy knowing their systems are
well-protected.
About LoginID
LoginID is a comprehensive FIDO-based multifactor authentication
solution that offers frictionless authentication. Created with
developers and enterprises in mind, LoginID is FIDO-certified and
adheres to P2D2 principles. With an implementation time of just one
hour, LoginID’s multifactor authentication solution is a quick, simple
to integrate, cost-effective, and regulatorily compliant tool to give
your business peace of mind around security, allowing you to focus on
growing your business.
Get started for free by checking out the demo
here.
Learn more about LoginID’s solutions
here.