Across multiple global breach studies, from just about every major security firm in the country, the overall consensus is that when it came to stopping breaches cold in 2020, one superstar security tool ruled them all: multifactor authentication (MFA).
Experts Know: MFA is the Way
It is no secret that experts from government agencies, including the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), list MFA as essential in the fight against cybercrime. Major tech makers have also been telling companies to adopt MFA for years. MFA is a requirement for compliance under many information privacy laws or policies including HIPAA, PCI, GDPR and DoD. Even online games have implemented MFA.
There is a good reason why security authorities never stop waving the banner for MFA. Secure identity and access management is vital for protecting systems and data. As the global pandemic upended the world, ushering in the new era of permanently remote work, it also brought a tidal wave of cybercrime, inundating organizations worldwide. That’s when the reliable workhorse that is MFA really stood out from the pack.
MFA is the MVP in the Fight Against Cybercrime
The efficacy of MFA against cybercrime is indisputable. Here’s a look at what MFA brings to the table.
- MFA stops 99% of password-based cybercrime in its tracks.
- MFA reduces a company’s risk of trouble from a damaging phishing-related cyberattack by making a phished password useless — and more than 80% of cybercrime is phishing.
- MFA packs a punch to defend against credential stuffing, password spraying, man-in-the-middle, brute-force and keylogging attacks by requiring a unique identifier for access.
- MFA defends businesses from malicious insiders that may be trying to make a quick buck in the cybercrime-as-a-service economy.
- MFA mitigates hacking threats posed by users logging in on insecure or low-security home connections, free retail or hotel WIFI and public networks.
The flexibility of use was a saving grace for many businesses in 2020. In the face of soaring cybercrime numbers, MFA was a steady shield between companies and cyberattacks. That’s why 48% of CISOs in an executive IT study said that their top priority was implementing secure identity and access management for their organization.
Don’t Leave Your Office Door Open for Cybercriminals
Many companies have been slow to adopt MFA. Nearly 40% of respondents in a survey of business leaders noted that their planned upgrades to secure identity and access management were delayed in the rush to facilitate remote work, leaving the door open for cybercriminals. That led to devastating consequences for businesses that failed to make the move. Over 40% of respondents in that study said that their organization had been compromised because of a bad, stolen or cracked password. It’s clear that multifactor authentication is a critical tool for businesses of every size. That’s why we tell businesses that if they can afford to make only one upgrade to their security stack this year, it must be secure identity and access management that includes MFA