I can’t tell you how many times I see a post like “Don’t respond if I friend you” or “I’ve been hacked!” or some other clear indication of a lack of priority on security. I get it, we’re all busy, we all want what we want when we want it and don’t want to be bothered with that “extra step”, even if it only takes a few extra seconds, or heaven forbid, a whole extra minute to make sure your information, data and more are safe and secure. But would it really kill you to take a little responsibility to make sure your digital home is as secure as your real home? I mean, how many of you have not only a lock on your door but an extra dead bolt as well? How many of you have two doors, both of which you lock when going out and one of them has two locks on it? You lock your Garage door right? And the door that leads into your home from your garage? Well then, why is your computer and your digital home any different?
Two factor authentication. It’s something that I’ll bet every one of you has already used and you’re completely unaware of it! Ever use an ATM machine? That’s a two factor system (your card and your pin number). Ever call customer service at a bank? Utility company? Doctor’s office? Those are two factor systems! Everywhere there are two factor systems in use to help protect you and your information with the exception of you and your online accounts.
Let me give a quick explanation of what multi-factor is.
Multi-factor has three different parts or ‘factors’. They can be summed up in:
What you KNOW – Like a pin, account number or password
What you HAVE – Like a bank card, cell phone or physical key generator
What you ARE – Like a fingerprint, iris, retina or other physical characteristic that is unique to you
Multi-factor authentication is the use of at least two of these factors to verify you are who you say you are. To use a common example that I already mentioned, an ATM transaction.
In an ATM transaction, it’s multi-factor by nature due to two factors required. They are What you HAVE (the ATM card) and what you know (the PIN for the card/account). Without both factors, the card is useless.
Well, online accounts do something similar! For online accounts, multi-factor is usually employed by the normal user name and password (what you KNOW), but adds one of these other methods, such as a text message to a phone, an authentication request to an app on your phone, requiring inserting a security device in your computer, providing a code from an authenticator app, or one of a number of other similar type measures (These are all What you HAVE).
See? That wasn’t so hard to understand, now was it?
Hackers by their very nature will attempt to steal from the “low hanging fruit” at first, meaning if your accounts use multi-factor, the difficulty to break into them or hack them goes up significantly. Usually they will move on to easier targets (because the world is full of easier targets).
So, the real question is why haven’t your enabled multi-factor security everywhere you possibly can? Honestly, I really can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t use it as it’s easy to configure and the slight inconvenience it give you is nothing when compared to the inconvenience of attempting to get your life back after your identity (and all your money) is stolen!
Don’t know how to enable multi-factor authentication for something? Well, your friend Google (and other search engines) are out there ready to provide you with instructions and help (or at the very least, direct you to the correct place to get help) to enable the extra security!
Who knew that something so simple could be so effective! Enable Multi-Factor now!
Check out my YouTube video on MFA
https://youtu.be/l5i9X4rWdm4