As a front-line IT worker, something I hear about regularly is speed. People want to go fast. They want Fast internet, they want their programs to open fast, they want to be able to do their jobs as quickly as possible. The other thing they want is “simplicity.” they want things to “just work” and not have to do too much to get to their information. I get that; I really do. As much as I talk about how important passwords are, there are some times when I want the thing to work. There is, however, a base level that is required for your own personal cybersecurity. Due to the rising sophistication of infiltrators, the baseline of what is acceptable to secure your digital system has risen. Something that has become an essential tool over the past few years is 2FA (or Two-Factor Authentication). In case you haven’t heard about this before, 2FA is where you enter your user name and password into your desired system that you want to get into. Instead of simply letting you in, there is a code sent to either your e-mail or texted to your phone, and only if you can enter that code correctly can you get into your system.
1) It’s effortless to set up – Every company and their dog are tripping over themselves to have 2FA set up on your account. They understand that the security of their information systems is equally as good for them as it is for you. On the one side, it’s great for them to be more secure because it makes them look better if you feel more secure using their product as opposed to a less secure competitor. On the other hand, it is better for you because you can be safe in the knowledge that your information is more secure because of 2FA than if you were to have your account locked up with a secure password. No matter how secure the password is, there is nothing like having 2fa in place.
2) It’s a step that doesn’t take much time – Depending on how often you access your system (no matter what it is), you may or may not be asked to input a 2FA code every single time you log in. This depends on how the program is set up, or configured as a part of your general settings. I know that when I access one of my systems, It asks me every time if I wanted to “trust this browser,” meaning that I would skip the 2FA step. While this would save me a second or two when I log into the system, I don’t trust the browser. While it is on my machine (or rather a machine that I trust), I still like the idea of the extra security check. In the world of the ultra-paranoid, if someone were to be able to get into my trusted machine and then figure out which cloud system I used, they would have full access to all of my data, which I’m not a fan of. Like I said, super paranoid, but It makes me feel better, so I’ll proudly wear that particular tin foil hat; thank you very much.
3) It’s super effective for preventing infiltrations – a few years ago, I was walking my kids to school. At the time, they were both little kids and needed a lot of hand-holding (both literal and figurative) to find their way to school. On the way, I got a notification from my Cloud provider. They had texted me a 2FA code so that I could log into my system. As I was just about to cross a street and held both my kid’s hands so clearly, I wasn’t trying to log into my cloud system. To be clear, I wasn’t checking my e-mail while crossing the street; I checked the e-mail later…but I did feel the buzz from my phone. Someone was trying to access my system and got stymied by the 2FA being in place. I got to a computer as quickly as I could, logged in and changed my password. If I didn’t have 2FA enabled, then who knows what would have happened.
As the world we live in is becoming ever more digital, it’s important to make sure that you protect your data as much as you possibly can. Taking every step ensures that your system is as secure as it can be from outsiders. A quick warning for you; While it’s certainly safer from outsiders, there is still the possibility of, ahem, “user error.” I may have had a minor issue with that as well a while back. No matter where the threats come from, you want to ensure that you have 2FA enabled in as many places as possible. With it, you will keep your system much safer than if you don’t.
Where do you have 2FA enabled?
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