TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

Passwords are not enough A password is a single authentication factor - anyone who has it can use it. No matter how strong it is, if its lost or stolen, its entirely useless at keeping information private. To secure your data properly, you also need to use a separate, secondary authentication factor. Data breaches are now commonplace In recent years, large-scale data breaches have increased dramatically in both severity and number, and the loss of personal information - including password data - has become commonplace. Furthermore, the fact that rapidly evolving password-cracking technology and the habitual use - and reuse - of weak passwords has rendered the security of username and password combinations negligible, and you have a very strong argument for more robust identity authentication. Consumers are beginning to realise just how exposed their personal and financial information is, and are demanding better security from the organisations that collect, process and store it. This has led to a rise in the adoption of two-factor authentication (TFA or 2FA). In the field of authentication security, the method of proving identity can be broken down into three characteristics - roughly summarised as what you have, what you are and what you know. Two-factor authentication relies on the combination of two of these factors. Product overview TFA is nothing new. Its mandated by requirement 8.3 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and banks have been using it for years, combining payment cards (what you have) and PINs (what you know). If you use online banking youll probably also have a chip authentication programme (CAP) keypad, which generates a one-time password (OTP). What is new is TFAs rising adoption beyond the financial sector. Two-Factor Authentication provides a comprehensive evaluation of popular secondary authentication methods, such as