This is an important information on the use of Two-factor (2FA) or Multi-factor (MFA) authentication on business and private online accounts.
Using 2FA and MFA means that even if criminals compromise an account password, they will be prevented or disrupted from gaining access, because they will not know the code generated by your account and sent to your mobile phone, or whatever option you have used in the MFA setup.
A quick example of its importance. The person has a Gmail account with 2FA set up on it, a couple of days ago the person received a text message from Google that stated an attempt had been made to access their account from Taiwan. If that person had not have 2FA setup, the cyber criminal would have been in the account quietly stealing private data, and possibly sending out phishing emails to all his contacts which would have appeared to have come from him.
For businesses and individuals using Office 365, please bear in mind the following fact:
Microsoft has reported that 1.2 million Office 365 accounts are compromised every month, which could be cut by 99.9 per cent if organisations enforced multi-factor authentication.
For advice about setting up 2FA and MFA, please visit:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/setting-two-factor-authentication-2fa
The National Cyber Security Centre. (NCSC) Helping to make the UK the safest place to live and work online. www.ncsc.gov.uk
Message from Mr Nigel Sutton 8517, Cyber Protect Officer
