Multi-Factor Authentication: Our Advice

Multi-Factor Authentication: Our Advice

To protect your private accounts from cyber threats and criminals, we recommend enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA). Studies show that using MFA can reduce your risk by 99.2%.

Methods for Enabling MFA

Entra ID is the core of Microsoft Identity management. It used to let administrators and service providers assign roles individually, but everyone rarely used this manual setup. Achieving full coverage of all accounts took a lot of work with this old method.

Security Defaults made MFA mandatory for all new Microsoft 365 accounts. However, they don't support older applications that lack MFA capabilities.

Conditional Access Policies give you control and flexibility to use third-party MFA apps, even for older capabilities. They work by checking if user requests to access data meet your conditions. If they do, access is granted. If not, access is blocked, or further authentication is required.

Methods of Authentication

Message, Voice, and Email are the most common and easiest methods to hack. However, SIM cards and email inboxes are also easy to breach, making this method riskier. Therefore, we need to consider other ways to confirm authentication.

Authenticator Apps provide a one-time passcode on the user's cell phone. It's much harder for hackers to mimic this code or breach the app.

Biometrics, U2F Tokens, and FIDO2

• Biometrics: This is the most secure method. It uses physical characteristics like fingerprints or facial recognition, which are much harder to replicate than passwords.
• U2F Tokens: These are physical devices, like USB sticks, that users can use to authenticate their access.
• FIDO2: This lets users use local devices to verify their identity. These devices are unique to the user.

Even with strong MFA practices, there's always a risk of scammers tricking someone into sharing information through phishing scams.

Chat to our team today for IT and Cyber Security Support - call 01482420150 or email sales@theonepoint.co.uk

‍