Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) has been making headlines this year. Although MFA methods are not new on the scene, their use is now a requirement for most Cyber Liability Insurance policies. Due to unrelenting losses from breach and ransomware attack claims, insurance carriers have been forced to drastically change new policy requirements, including double authentication.
Why Multi-Factor Authentication?
It is estimated that the annual cost for cyber breaches will reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. That’s a lot of claim money being dished out by insurance providers! Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) requires users to respond to requests via text, app, or email before accessing networks or other online applications. Cybercriminals have long exploited login data. Passwords are unreliable and unwieldy. Users tend to have trouble storing and remembering login credentials across multiple accounts. Additionally, online predators can easily acquire passwords through hacking, phishing, and malware.
MFA requires a means of verification that unauthorized users won’t have access to. A piece, or multiple pieces, of evidence is required to verify identity. Proper MFA uses factors from at least two separate categories, such as a combination of a password and a temporary passcode. The password is a knowledge category, and the passcode is a possession category. This prevents hackers from impersonating a user with the one piece of evidence they have.
Reasons for Employing Multi-Factor Authentication in Your Business
Aside from MFA requirements to obtain a Cyber Liability Insurance Policy, several crucial data points support the need for multi-factor authentication for all businesses handling sensitive information.
- As far as cyber criminals are concerned, identity theft is an easily accomplished, low-risk, high-reward opportunity quickly becoming more profitable than drug dealing.
- Weak or stolen credentials cause 95% of all web application attacks.
- According to Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) research, the total number of data breaches through September 30, 2021, has already exceeded the total number of events in 2020 by 17%.
- Small businesses are victims of 80% of cyberattacks.
- Even with Anti-Virus systems and advanced firewalls, businesses leave the “front door wide open” without user authentication.
- Cybercriminals do not just steal data. They often destroy data, change programs, and use servers to transmit propaganda, spam, and malicious code.
99.9% Prevention
According to Microsoft Security, “MFA can block over 99.9 percent of account compromise attacks.” With a statistic like that versus the potential payout for a cyber breach, it’s surprising it took insurance companies this long to mandate Multi-factor Authentication for Cyber Liability policies.
Whether your company is securing a policy or not, deploying an MFA protocol for your business makes sense. Talk to the experts at FUSE3. We can help you select and implement the best security applications to protect your data. Let us make technology work for you!