MFA: SAY WHAT?

No, Really. MFA: SAY WHAT?

There has been so much hype about multifactor authentication, but what actually is it? And how is it different from 2 factor authentication?

Go ahead and register for almost any new account online, if it’s a good company, this experiment should work! When you get the info form filled out and account set-up started, it will ask if you’d like to connect an email or a phone number for authentication purposes. For the sake of the lesson, you put your phone number in and the service to which you just made the account sends you a text message with a code. If the code you received and entered matches what was sent, then whallah! You have just confirmed that you are authentically you. The process is pretty much the same every time you login – fill in the username and password, then the program you are trying to access generates a code to be sent to your registered personal device in order to authenticate you.

Ok, so now what’s the difference between MFA and 2FA? Simply put; MFA is MULTIfactor Authentication and 2FA is TWO factor authentication. Where MFA requires at least 3 pieces of information, 2FA only requires 2 pieces of information to authenticate.

It seems like commonsense to require some sort of authentication each time a program is opened, but many people see it, and many other security protocols, as nothing more than a hassle. Think about how much of a hassle it would be if an intruder was listening to your system and hijaked it with the credentials you just entered? That is a different conversation for a different time – stay tuned!