3 Business Benefits of 2 Factor Authentication

Why do businesses need 2 Factor Authentication (2FA)?

What are the 3 benefits of 2 Factor Authentication?

Passwords are the weakest link in digital security. They can be guessed, captured by hackers logging keystrokes, or stolen by social engineering techniques. Additionally, individuals are often guilty of writing them down or using passwords that are easy to remember.

For businesses, this is bad news. Unauthorised users exploit the weak protection afforded by passwords to gain access to company data and systems. Whether it is personal data, intellectual property (IP), or research and development, all data has a value. This is what makes it an attractive target for cybercriminals.

Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection, strengthening digital security across your organisation.

Here are three ways your business can benefit:

It 2 Factor Authentication a Cost-Effective Solution

Following a data breach, not all companies can withstand the cost of reputational damage or regulatory fines. Two-factor authentication offers a cost-effective way of strengthening your digital security. Soft tokens, such as PIN codes that arrive digitally, via a smartphone app, or email, are especially cost-effective. Hard tokens, such as ID cards or smart token devices usually cost more than soft tokens, but it is worth remembering different members of your team can be set up to use different tokens, depending on what is more convenient for them. Ultimately, two-factor authentication is a very inexpensive way of protecting most companies from digital security attacks.

It Guarantees Employee Involvement

Two-factor authentication strengthens your digital security across your entire workforce. No matter how much you educate and warn your employees about the risks of using weak passwords, there will always be someone who recycles the same passwords, writes them down, or uses a simple phrase for fear of forgetting.

Hackers can crack the simplest passwords in seconds, which could leave your company vulnerable to attack. Two-factor authentication adds an additional layer of protection to all of your employees’ log-in details. By requiring an additional element, such as a physical token in the form of an ID card or USB stick, it makes it much less likely that a hacker could be in possession of both at the same time.

It Reduces the Threat Posed by Ex-Employees

Most companies use cloud storage and services to enable employees to work from any location. This is convenient, but what happens when your employees leave your company? If they only need a password to access your company data, then failing to change it each time an employee leaves means they can still access your data from anywhere too.

There are a number of reasons an ex-employee could want to access your company’s data. They might be looking for information that could help them in their new role, such as your client list, or they might be attempting to replicate your bespoke systems for your competitor. They could even hold a grudge and be looking to cause maximum damage. The Insider Threat is one of the biggest threats to businesses

With two-factor authentication, the password alone is not enough. To access your systems, you can also require your employees to enter a code, sent to their work email address or work phone. At the end of employment, their work email address should be deactivated, and work phones should be returned, which will prevent access to your data.

If the management of two-factor authentication is a challenge for your organisation, we can manage this for you. At Digital Pathways, our systems plug into your organisation’s Active Directory to check and authorise user access.

Every organisation can benefit from added protection. Give us a call on 0844 586 0040, or email [email protected], and we’ll be happy to advise you.