With the IT environment getting more and more complicated, the traditional authentication method using only passwords is no longer secure. A study revealed that there are 8.2 million passwords stolen every day, meanwhile about 95 passwords stolen per second.
Passwords have become our greatest weakness.
Although we have relied on passwords for our security and online authentication for decades, the fact is passwords have long since outlived their purpose. Passwords are becoming more of a problem than a solution. It’s like using paper to block the rain. What passwords currently give us is only a false sense of security, a sense of ease that we are sufficiently protected while the truth is anyone who buys a 1-dollar tool from the dark web can potentially access our accounts.
Another problem with passwords is people haven’t learned proper password etiquette. The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) demonstrated that roughly 23.2 million user accounts worldwide were “secured” with “123456.” Among the other most used include weak passwords such as “password,” “111111,” and “qwerty.”
As if using weak passwords aren’t enough to give an advantage to hackers. Users are also very fond of listing, sharing and reusing passwords. A recent survey determined that 95 percent of users share up to 6 passwords with other people such as their family, friends and coworkers. On the other hand, 59 percent are reusing old passwords.
Solely relying on passwords isn’t just risky; it’s foolish.
So how can we protect ourselves online? Thankfully, the answer is within our reach. Mature login solutions such as those that incorporate Single Sign-On (SSO) and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) sets the bar higher for your login security. Here’s why MFA is the best choice for your online verifications:
An Extra Layer of Security.
- Using multi-factor authentication solutions, we gain extra layers of security. Even if a hacker gets ahold of your login credentials, they would still have to gain knowledge of your other authentication keys or factors. It provides a level of security beyond passwords. With security breaches and cybercrime rates on the rise, it is an important aspect of ensuring your online security.
Flexibility and Easy Implementation.
- Leveraging cloud-based systems, 2FA and MFA are intuitive and easy to implement. You can also choose favorite deployment options for your organization based on your threat profile. Each deployment method or “other factors” have their own pros and cons. For example, while email or SMS-based codes are susceptible to external threats such as phishing, physical authentication keys can be stolen by internal threats inside the office.
Take Full Control of Your Logins.
- You can choose multi-factor authentication solutions with powerful admin control which can help you monitor and perform timely actions against malicious user accounts. MFA also helps alert user when someone else has entered a set of valid login credentials to their online accounts. For instance, when using email or app push as a deployment method for other “factors.” Your email would receive a message with a unique verification code, or your phone would pop up notifications.
It Gives Maximum Online Protection.
MFA ensures your password is not alone in defending from all sorts of malicious attacks. Currently, four-factor authentication provides the highest security standards and is usually used to protect user data of organizations’ high-ranking staff or IT personnel.
The Future Norm in Online Security.
- About 80 percent of banks and finance organizations in the US already use 2FA to protect their end-users. But while 2FA is quickly becoming the current baseline for login security, cybersecurity experts predict that MFA will be the future norm.
TraitWare, Passwordless Multi-Factor Authentication Solution
It’s time to move on from traditional password-only authentication. Try TraitWare, an award-winning Passwordless SSO & MFA solution for your logins. Traitware unifies all your enterprise apps and enables multi-factor from 2-factor up to 4-factor authentication. But the greatest edge of TraitWare against similar MFA platforms is, it completely eliminates your security weakness—the passwords.
Instead of just adding layers of security on top of the outdated username-and-password login system. TraitWare’s passwordless logins is the answer to the future of login security. TraitWare turns your mobile devices such as smartphones into your security assets only when you need it. It leverages on your mobile device biometrics to create QR codes to authenticate your logins. Because your mobile device biometrics changes constantly, so does the codes. This way, you can avoid phishing, MiTM attacks, and other external attacks. Providing additional protection against internal attacks such as key theft.