As businesses have started moving online the need for security is increasing . Every other day we read on the news about cyber attacks happening all over the globe. This type of news makes us worried about our own data privacy and security . Now that every little thing about us is nearly digital then we need to provide it with an adequate amount of security .Well, providing security sounds safe enough but sometimes it’s not, we need to provide another layer of security over the application or data that is in question. This extra layer is correctly known as Multi-Factor Authentication.
What exactly is MFA?
MFA or Multi-Factor Authentication is a method of confirming your identity before allowing you access to any Website or application. This is used to confirm and add another layer of security to the verification, that it’s you who is trying to access the certain application not someone else trying to impersonate you.
The goal of MFA is to create a layered defence that makes it more difficult for an unauthorised person to access a target, such as a physical location, computing device, network or database. If one factor is compromised or broken, the attacker still has at least one or more barriers to breach before successfully breaking into the target application or website.
Talking about MFA it’s important to say that MFA is a core component of a strong identity access management policy. Explaining in simpler terms we can say that the two factor authorization that you might have seen on many websites using passwords as well as One Time Passwords are also a practical application of Multi-factor authentication.
The original security is your password and the other is OTP which is changed after a specific time period , increasing the security even more .
Need For MFA
The demand of MFA increased in the market when the organisations were using the traditional username and password implication of security, which led to them being the potential targets of cyber attacks . This caused them loss of millions of dollars .
As we all know that the passwords are really vulnerable to brute-force attacks and can be cracked using many tools available .Thus the need for another security layer arised and MFA was introduced making it difficult for the attackers to crack the security. It’s basically like a thumbprint on some of your official documents which only match with you and you only.
How does MFA work ?
The most basic need of implementing MFA requires additional information beside the password provided by the user confirming the identity . This additional information is referred to as a factor . The most popularly used MFA factor the user uses is OTP.
OTP as mentioned in the previous section is typically a 4-8 digit of code that you often receive on your mail or phone which ensures that the device you are using is legitimate enough to access the service or the application.
Types of MFA
After learning about the working of MFA let’s see the types of authentication through which someone can login and verify themselves. There are many ways or methods through which a user can verify themselves, some of them are :-
- FIDO(Fast Identity Online)- FIDO specifications support multi factor authentication (MFA) and public key cryptography. Unlike password databases, FIDO stores personally identifying information (PII), such as biometric authentication data, locally on the user’s device to protect it. FIDO’s local storage of biometrics and other personal identification is intended to ease user concerns about personal data stored on an external server in the cloud.
- Biometric verification– People with a smart device or computer with biometric authentication (such as fingerprint ID or facial recognition) can use this check to confirm their identity as part of MFA. Biometric ID verification tends to be less hassle than typing in an OTP, so customers find it less aggravating to use it frequently. The lower friction makes it an ideal option when extra checks are unavoidable.
- SMS Token Authentication– A relatively straightforward measure to implement, especially for consumers and the general public, this check most often consists of a text message containing a PIN number. This PIN is then used as a one-time password (OTP), usually in addition to traditional username-and-password verification.
Implementation of MFA
Now that we have gone through the importance and need for MFA the question arises that How do i apply MFA to my application? Well to answer that question we at JustIntegrated have the right solutions just for your needs.
Our team of highly experienced individuals will guide you throughout the whole process of implementing the features and your needs into your app and help you choose the best available solution for your needs. As Our team excels in providing the best solutions after understanding your needs and requirements . This requires the most attention which is our topmost priority for a client .
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