By Nelson Cicchitto Factor it In Why multi-factor authentication is non-negotiable in the work from home era Two trends have converged during the last few years to create a dire security situation for private companies, which makes multi-factor authentication (MFA) more important than ever. The first of these is the pandemic and the resulting spike in remote work. Regardless of your opinion about the mass adoption of work from home (WFH), employees are now routinely accessing sensitive company materials from unsecured access points far outside a given company’s network. The second of these trends is the recent surge in cybercrime. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, there has been a 300 percent increase in cyberattacks since the start of the pandemic. Bad actors are lurking around every corner and exploiting every unsecured access point they can find. MFA has a vital role to play in keeping companies safe, which is why MSPs should help relevant IT professionals implement it at their companies as soon as possible before the worst-case scenario transpires. MFA Defined Basically, MFA is password-plus. Password plus a series of personal questions such as, “What street did you grow up on?” or “What was the name of your childhood dog?”. Password plus a six-digit code sent to your cell phone or email address. Password plus a biometric indicator like a fingerprint or voiceprint. The logic is that a password is much easier to steal than one’s cell phone (which is likely password-protected itself) and that a cybercriminal isn’t liable to know the name of your childhood poodle. It’s an extra layer of protection (or extra layers of protection if you use three or more authentication methods) in a world where we need as many layers of protection as we can get. Millions of people already use MFA on a daily basis to access their banking information, sign in to social media or pay their electricity bill. And yet, despite the widespread adoption of MFA for consumer purWhat is your organization’s maturity with regards to visibility and control over identity security across on-premises and cloud systems? Source: Sapio Research, Keeper Security, 2022 Source: Forrester XDR rechnology is the top security priority for firms during the next 12 months Low maturity We leave it to employees to set their own passwords, and access is often shared “Which of the ollowing security operations tools or services is your organization currently evaluating/using?” Planning to implement in the next 12 months Interested, but no plans to implement Average maturity We provide guidance and best practices governing passwords and access management High maturity We o er a highly sophisticated framework to govern access to our system 30% 44% 26% 24 23% Extended detection and response (XDR) solutions Managed detection and response (MDR) solutions Endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions Security orch stration, automation and response (SOAR) solutions Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions Intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) solutions User and entity behavior analysis (UEBA) solutions Vulnerability detection and response (VDR) solutions Managed security services provider (MSSP) solutions CYBER-SECURED 8 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=