The Mandatory Process:
It is one of the mandatory processes today to ensure secure
access to your important accounts. Be it your email account, internet banking
account, or social media accounts, two-factor authentication guarantees the
security of your personal information. Today, most of the government and
government institutions encourage users to go for two-factor authentication.
Especially, the BFSI sector is leading the race. Two-factor authentication
confirms your identity by using a different combination of the information that
is very specific to the users. Let’s take the example of your Gmail account.
If you are using two-factor authentication for your Gmail
account, you will receive numeric codes to your registered phone number.
Two-factor authentication generates a secure pin on a real-time basis to grant
secure access to your Gmail account.
Multiple Security Options:
As mentioned earlier, the BFSI sector is leading the race
for the adoption of two-factor authentication. Your banking information is the
most sensitive information and if leaked, it can incur severe financial losses.
Hence, two-factor authentication becomes the must-have option for the banking
sector. Let’s take an example of HSBC banking services. The bank offers its
users a security token that generates real-time pins, helping users to access
their online account. The bank also offers other secured ways for accessing an
online account.
There are different factors on which two-factor
authentication works. Here are some of them.
Knowledge factor: Generally, most of the online providers
work on known factors. This may be in the form of secret questions that the
users have the knowledge of Jason Baumbach Cambodia.
For example, asking users about their favourite sports, sports person,
favourite quote or favourite childhood star or school name. This kind of
two-factor authentication is very much common in the banking sector.
Possession factor: In general terms, the possession factor
is one of the most common ways of granting two-factor authentication. The
possession factor is something that the user possesses. A most common example
is lock and key. If we need to talk in terms of digital terms, the secure pin
sent to your mobile or email. As you are the owner of your mobile and email,
the information shared on these devices is private to you and ensure secure
access to your personal information.
Software token: The other important factor of two-factor
authentication is software tokens. The ideal example in this regard is digital
signature certificates. The certificate is loaded secure on your device and you
can use it as and when required. Let’s take an example of the government
services. If you are the business owner, you may have to use these tokens to
authenticate several government services.
The Need:
In today’s digital world, two-factor authentication has
become the need of the hour. It is not only promoted by private businesses but
is also endorsed by government agencies. There are several countries where the
government agencies are running education programs to encourage users to go
adopt two-factor authentication. Today, having a regular password does not
guarantee the security of your account. Having multiple combinations in your
password does not work anymore, hence, you require a smarter and secure way of
authentication.
User Convenience:
If you look at the evolution of the whole process, you will
find that from the hardware token to mobile authentication, the journey is
focusing on user convenience. Apart from the security, implementing user
convenience has also become important. The whole objective is to encourage more
and more users to adopt two-factor authentication. Today, mobile has become the
crucial element of two-factor authentication.
The reason being the increase in the number of mobile users.
As more and more users are using mobile phones and adopting smart applications,
institutions find mobile authentication very convenient, secure and fast.
From hardware tokens to the token-less system, two-factor
authentication. If you are an iPhone user, the Touch-ID can also be considered
as two-factor authentication. If you need to access any specific application on
your iPhone and you have enabled touch ID for that application, the access to
that application is private to you only. It will prevent the third-party access
to your private information and data.
Two-factor authentication has become a way of life. As
today’s users have become more sensitive towards data and data security,
two-factor authentication is the way to ensure ultimate security to your data
and information.
