PROTECTING YOUR BUSINESS WITH TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

Imagine this; It’s 5PM, your employee is rushing to get home. An email pops up on their screen. The subject is “Urgent Big Order”.  He opens the email. It looks a little different than emails normally do from the client. The email says, “click the link to get the order details”. Without thinking, the employee clicks the link. The web page asks for a user name and password. He enters his information and clicks Login, but the page does go anywhere. He shrugs his shoulders and says to himself “I will take care of it in the morning” and goes home.

What the employee doesn’t know is that he was just the victim of a phishing attack. The web site was bogus, and now a hacker has his user name and password. While the employee is eating dinner with his family, the hacker is reading through company data or transferring money out of YOUR bank account. By the morning when the issue is discovered, it is too late to do anything. The data or money has been stolen.

The stolen data could have been prevented using a simple, new technology called two factor authentication or 2FA. Two factor authentication adds a second method of authentication when a user logs into a web site or company resource. After logging into a web site, you receive a text message with a code. The code is entered into the web site. If the code is correct, you get into the site. If you don’t have the code, you don’t get in. You may have encountered 2FA when logging into Facebook or Gmail on a new computer.
Two factor authentication requires you to have different types of identifying information, normally a password and code that is sent to a device you own. The code sent via text message or phone call. It can be sent through an app on your phone. Not having access to the phone makes it very hard for a hacker to get into your accounts.

Many small businesses in the New Milford/Danbury area are adding two factor authentication to protect their company resources. Unified Access Systems are can be implemented to protect systems like Office 365, Dropbox, and many other applications. Configuration is simple and can be completely cloud based. Pricing is affordable and billed on a per user basis.

Umbrella Infotech can help your business get started with two factor authentication. Click here to see how we can help you protect your company today.