The Business Bulletin
Why should we use multi-factor authentication? In a recent EMC and Vanson Bourne survey of more than 10,000 IT managers, 71% said they believe IT must serve as in-house brokers for on-demand services to help business growth. One imagines that, immediately after answering that question, they emitted a collective groan.
That’s because the IT manager’s plate
the potential to set off a chain reaction
is already heaped with a mountain of
of tweaks and adjustments, which can
priorities. In addition to keeping the
irritate users and keep them offline.
network up and running, and fulfilling
Since a streamlined authentication
the many competing requests from
process keeps productivity (and
departments across the organization,
morale) high, IT administrators should
they now need to think strategically
ensure that each new upgrade or
about supporting business growth
addition affects access to critical
while also keeping security top of mind.
programs as little as possible.
Administrators have installed
Advancements in remote access
antivirus software, raised the firewall,
enable more and more employees
deployed encryption technology, and
to work from any location. The
periodically run vulnerability tests. But
IT department is responsible for
the sobering reality is that if multi-
facilitating the ability of the remote
factor authentication (MFA) is not in
workforce to perform its functions from
place, these other security measures
outside the office environment, which
can be bypassed. A best practice for IT
means its authentication strategy must
managers is to categorize their systems
make it as easy as possible to safely
to identify the ones that contain access
access business applications from
to business-critical data, and then add
anywhere, at any time.
MFA on top of those. MFA has low complexity, which makes it an easy addition. It can be rolled out quickly without busting the budget.
Using MFA, administrators can adapt the level of support needed using
Bharat Panchal
C4 Secure
After 30 years working in IT, Bharat decided to focus on helping businesses by offering the RSA SecurID® Suite. This uses identity insights, threat intelligence and business context to provide secure access to all their users, across all applications. He delivers peace of mind to end-users and to management. With Bharat’s help firms don’t worry about contravening strict rules on data access and GDPR regulations or about loss of data due to malicious attacks or plain forgetfulness. 01604 439303 sales@c4secure.co.uk c4secure.co.uk
contextual information, such as login behaviour patterns, geo-location, and type of login system being accessed.
prompted for a one-time passcode in
For example, if the user is logging in
order to authenticate. This allows end
IT complexity is a real and ongoing
from a trusted location where they
users the needed security with greater
issue. Each change to the network has
have logged in before, they will not be
ease of use while working off-premise.
Streamlined access
18 | Issue 3 – Operations and Resources
