February 17, 2020
When you consider what you’re doing to keep yourself cyber secure, the first thing that might come to mind is using a strong password or a passphrase that cyber criminals aren’t likely to guess. Passwords and passphrases are, indeed, a key part of keeping you and your family cyber secure.
But there’s also another, often overlooked, tactic that can add an additional layer of security against cyber threats: multi-factor authentication. Here are three ways multi-factor authentication (or MFA) can help you stay cyber secure.
It offers added security in addition to passwords
A strong passphrase or password is essential for cyber security. If you use our tips, you can significantly reduce the risk of a cyber criminal stealing your information. But using a passphrase or password is just one piece of the puzzle.
By turning on multi-factor authentication for all your accounts, you can ensure that your password always has back-up to keep you secure.
It gives you peace of mind
We all have a ton of different accounts, which should be protected with unique passwords: Social media, online shopping, and service (such as hydro) accounts.
Online accounts and services are, in many ways, inevitable offshoots of living in the modern world. They add convenience, enabling us to connect with friends on social media or shop our favourite stores.
The downside is that by having all these accounts, you give cyber criminals more opportunities to steal your information.
What’s worse is that if one of your account’s is compromised, your other accounts are also vulnerable to attacks. For example, if a hacker accesses your hydro or energy account, the hacker can steal information that can be used to attack another accounts.
Using multi-factor authentication gives you peace of mind knowing that, if you become the victim of an attack, you have an added layer of security to protect you.
It helps you stay ahead of changing cyber threats
Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated.
Cyber criminals can now, for example, use sophisticated phishing and smishing techniques that can fool even the most cyber savvy person. To stay cyber secure, you need every line of defence you can get. By enabling multi-factor authentication, you can ensure you stay one step ahead of these changing threats. Let’s say, for example, that you become a victim of a sophisticated phishing attack, and your password for a key account is stolen. Multi-factor authentication protects you by requiring the cyber criminal who stole your password to have access to another device, such as your cell phone, or provide another piece of information to log in.
By adding multi-factor authentication to your arsenal, you have another means of defending yourself from cyber criminals who are becoming more adept at stealing information.
Conclusion
Don’t wait for a cyber attack to happen to you! Enable multi-factor authentication on your important accounts to help keep you and your information cyber secure.