Protect your business and your customers with two factor authentication

Protect your business and your customers with two factor authentication

Cyber crime is on the rise, as the recent attacks on the NZX have highlighted. Corporate hacking, phishing scams, even just working from home all increase our vulnerability.

One of the simplest and quickest things to enhance your business’s security is to use two-factor authentication (2FA.) You can protect your customers too, because if you provide services where they can login and access their data, they could also be at risk. 2FA can be a solid defence for both your business and your customers, protecting access to both systems and accounts.

That’s the advice of cyber security expert Steve Dymond.  And that’s why at Insurance Advisernet, you’ll start to see us introducing 2FA systems to our broker network.

So how does 2FA actually work? When your staff log into a business system, such as IANZ’s platforms, or when your customers log into their account on your website, they use a username and password combination. This is known as single factor authentication. 2FA requires them to provide something else on top of that, to verify that they are who they say they are.

There are different types of 2FA verification, based on either something you have (e.g. a security fob that generates authentication codes, or a notification or code sent to your smartphone) or something you are (e.g. fingerprint scans, or voice recognition).

Customers and staff can use it to verify themselves when they're logging in, in addition to their normal 'username and password' login details.

While an attacker may be able to get access to your staff or customer’s login details quite easily, they’re unlikely to have access to the device receiving the second level of authentication. This makes it much harder for the attacker to gain access to someone's account.

Where to start

If you're not sure where to start with 2FA, think about which systems you connect to via the internet. These are the systems that are more likely to be targeted in an attack, so they’re the ones most important to protect. It’s likely to be things like:

  • your webmail
  • a VPN
  • any cloud-based service you use.

There’s no shortage of 2FA solutions on the market, but the approach and the technology they use can vary. Talk to your information security expert or broker about the best solution for your business.
 

For a confidential conversation about your insurance program, contact one of our members today.


General Advice Warning

The information provided is to be regarded as general advice. Whilst we may have collected risk information, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. We recommend that you consider the suitability of this general advice, in respect of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. You should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase this financial product.

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