Taking Security Further

There’s a gaping hole in the middle of IT security. Passwords have proliferated beyond count, while the requirements of consumer applications and arduous IT authentication policies have made passwords increasingly complex. Users are throwing up their hands in frustration. As a result, people practice increasingly bad password hygiene. The most popular password, according to a recent report on an analysis of some 10 million actual passwords? It’s “123456.” And number eight on the list? “Password.” Despite reminders from IT staff, 73 percent of passwords are duplicates. This can make credentials vulnerable to “man in the middle” attacks, phishing and other ploys. Many organizations are turning to multi-factor authentication (MFA) to manage employee access. In this paradigm, a security system requires multiple means of authentication from independent categories to verify the user’s credentials. The secondary authentication can take several forms, such as a hard token or a “push” code that can be delivered to a mobile device. However, adaptive MFA takes this further, no