By now, most of us realize the risks we’re taking with passwords. Massive security breaches are in the news daily, most of them tied to compromised user credentials.

Your password is long? Complicated? Special characters? Doesn’t matter. Most hackers are more sophisticated than the technology most of us are using for access security. In fact, chances are good they already have that one password you thought was secure and have been using for all your accounts.

People say Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is the answer.  But your typical MFA isn’t as safe as you think.

“Typical” MFA / 2FA or Legacy 2SV is a Band-Aid approach to security, merely layering on top of a username and password for login giving a false sense of security. This simply won’t cut it. If the authentication process relies on passwords – which we know are not secure – then the entire system won’t be secure either.  

Legacy MFA methods like the one-time code, security questions, mobile push, or SMS, may cause momentary inconvenience for a hacker, but ultimately not enough to deter them from getting into the system anyway When there are passwords, hackers use credential stuffing and other methods to bypass the MFA and break in. Think about how most accounts are relying on your email to send an OTP or pairing it with a “magic link”, plus your email is the primary way you recover your accounts. This has only led to email now being the #1 target to compromise. 

Another reason the layer cake approach fails is that it cannot deploy the 2SV, 2FA, or Real MFA at the time you create the account, and this is the primary reason it is never turned on for most users even when it’s available. Adding to this is the time and cost to pair each account individually. 

User experience (UX) matters to security!

Making it easy is critical to increased security adoption, as ease of use reduces the risk of human error. Having to remember multiple passwords for each account will cost thousands of hours of work time, and many dollars (roughly $70 per call) in support and reset costs. Plus, those passwords are likely reused, shared, forgotten, stored on post-its, and therefore easy to hack.

Luckily, there is a modern, more secure, and much EASIER way to do MFA.

TraitWare® does what most MFA solutions don’t. TraitWare enables MFA right from account creation. It’s built-in to the solution’s technology and verifies user identity without a password, leveraging the biometric reader of the user’s mobile device, as well as opaque behavioral biometrics in real time. Ultimately tying the USER to the login, providing higher levels of authentication assurance through Real Passwordless MFA™  built with True Zero Trust Architecture. 

What is even more exciting is that, unlike typical MFA solutions, TraitWare makes life easier for the user and for the IT administrator. Because the MFA is inherent, the user can seamlessly enroll, authenticate, and log in in just three touches.

All of this is particularly important for the enterprise during our “New Normal”. As employees work from Anywhere, the so-called safe corporate perimeter is GONE. Applications and other valuable company resources are increasingly accessed via the cloud, and with personal devices (including phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) and must be secured remotely.

Modern security protocols must account for the modern way we work. 

In conclusion, traditional MFA just isn’t going to get the job done. Just helping to verify user identity (and a less-than-perfect job at that) isn’t good enough.

To fit the job description of a truly complete, modern identity & access management solution, it must eliminate the password AND it must:

1. Determine that the device is secure enough to access the application or resource requested

2. Verify that the user is who they say they are (using biometric, behavioral, and geolocation data)

3. Enforce continuous risk policy-based authentication decisions

4. Enable single sign-on (SSO)

5. Reduce friction for the user and IT with seamless UX

6. Easily integrate with existing solutions (Plug-and-play)

LOSE the password! Simplify, secure, and save money while you’re at it. 

Sound too good to be true? Modern, Passwordless, Real MFA™ for True Zero Trust Access™  can be deployed today.

Why not take TraitWare® for a Spin – ON US!?

For any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help.