An Insight into Essential Eight’s Multi-Factor Authentication

An Insight into Essential Eight’s Multi-Factor Authentication

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  An Insight intoEssential Eight’s Multi-Factor Authentication With the increasing instances of cyber-attacks, all organisations, regardless of their size and industries, need to remain vigilant 24/7. All types of data play an integral role in how businesses function nowadays, as data is used for improving targeted marketing, delivering better customer experience, and learning more about customer behaviour. Essential 8, the prioritised mitigation strategies developed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), are the best measures for organisations to keep various cyber threats at bay. Multi-factor Authentication: An Effective Essential Eight Strategy Australia Essential 8 constitutes mitigation strategies that include patch applications, patch operating systems, multi-factor authentication, restricting administrative privileges, application control, user application hardening, regular backups, and restricting Microsoft Office macros. In today’s post, we’ll discuss the multi-factor authentication mitigation strategy and how it helps businesses. Multi-factor authentication turns out to be effective for all types of businesses as it obstructs malicious actors from easily accessing sensitive business data. Further, MFA is also successful when it comes to blocking malicious actors from stealing legitimate credentials. As the name suggests, this method places two or more factors to authenticate a user before granting access to storage, server, payment gateways, email, etc. Usually, the MFA factors used include:  Passwords, passphrases, or a PIN (personal identification number)  Security keys, smart cards, software certificate, or OTP (One-Time Password)  Biometrics like fingerprint or facial recognition
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  Are All MFAMethods Equally Successful? There’s no arguing the fact that all Essential Eight multi-factor authentication methods are more effective than single-factor authentication. However, when it comes to comparing the various MFA methods with each other, some methods emerge to be better than others. One-time passwords: Sending OTPs via SMS is one of the most common MFA methods. Generally, a six-digit number is sent to the user’s phone which would help the user in getting access or completing half or a part of the MFA process. However, this factor is not as strong as you think because cellular network vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious actors. Mobile Tokens: Mobile tokens facilitate the authentication process as the user can gain access by feeding a credential or scanning a QR code from a smartphone. Even though mobile tokens are convenient for users, it still comes with risks as anyone who’s able to get a copy of the QR can use it to access the system. Push-based Authentication Tokens: This method is an upgrade from the OTPs and mobile tokens and comes with improved usability. To enable access, a software or system will send an encrypted message that the user can only open with an app. When reaching this app, the user would either have to approve or disapprove the attempt. On approval, a unique internal OTP would be generated from the app and sent to the original location for more secure authentication. Implement Essential 8 Now! Australia Essential 8 has become a basic need for various organisations to continue working securely amidst the constant threat of cyberattacks. If you don’t know where to start, you can rely on Onsite Helper to learn more about the Essential 8 and implementing it. Contact enquiries@onsitehelper.com or call 1300 889 839 to know more.