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This Is Why The Government Is Promoting MFA More Than Ever

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This Is Why The Government Is Promoting MFA More Than Ever

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Australian Government wants businesses to have Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as part of their security suite

Government published cyber-crime statistics show why cyber security is vital!

The Australian Cyber Security Centre website is actively promoting MFA, or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), as ‘one of the most effective controls businesses can implement to prevent an adversary from gaining access to sensitive information, their devices or network[1]’.

If your business relies on data to generate income, regardless of what industry or business you are in, or the size of your business, you need MFA! And you need to do a little research before you buy!

TIPS: Key Research Points & Links for MFA

  1. There are numerous MFA solutions available on market, with varying security capabilities.

If MFA is a new concept to you, do a little research before buying a solution. ACSC’s website provides non-proprietary information worth reading, such as ‘Multi-factor authentication methods’. The government website gives insight into different aspects of MFA you can then use to interrogate products on market, or sales pitches.

  1. MFA is all about protecting as many ‘attack surfaces’ across your business as possible. If you haven’t already, identify and document your company’s potential attack surfaces. This is a simple way to help choose the right MFA solution for you.

What is an ‘attack surface’? Anything part of your electronic or internet environment that an attacker can use to access your internal networks and data from outside your company.  For example, phishing attacks! (To learn more about phishing attacks, you can read my blog, ‘Phishing is a Global Threat and You Could Be The Next Target’.)

An excellent article that gives understandable, practical insight into attack surfaces is ‘Hacker Lexicon: What Is An Attack Surface?’ written by Lily Hay Newman, published in WIRED.

  1. You will need Technical Advice! How MFA is applied comes down to what you want to protect (attack surfaces), and your working style (onsite, remotely, both). Engineers tell me there are lots of different ways to do MFA, so you need someone on your advisory team who is technically aware and can communicate steps to you in non-tech terms.

I’ve just interviewed a Director and Senior Engineer in the company I work for, Melbourne-based MSP itro, about their experiences upgrading our MFA solution. (NB This is not a sales-driven article. I don’t even mention which MFA solution we have). You can read about their experiences and personal tips here: Benefits of MFA with our itro director and senior engineer

Tell Me More About MFA

If you’d like to know more about MFA or talk to an engineer who does communicate technical options in non-tech terms, please contact us at itro on 1800 10 3000 or email [email protected] for more information.

We’d love to help you improve your security by understanding what MFA options would work for your business.

References

[1] ‘Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication’ – the Australian Cyber Security Centre

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