Protect your crown jewels
In today’s digital age, all businesses rely heavily on technology for their day-to-day operations. With the increased use of digital solutions comes the increased risk of cyber threats. Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to bypass security which has led to a growing need for businesses to adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect what, in effect, are their crown jewels – their sensitive data.
A cyber attack on your holiday park business would be devastating. Imagine if your customers’ private information was stolen and held to ransom. Would it be you who would have the job of phoning or emailing your previous guests and owners to tell them what’s happened? How would you break that news?!
What is MFA?
MFA stands for multi-factor authentication. It is a security process that requires users to provide two or more forms of authentication before they can access an application or system. These factors typically include:
- Something the user knows e.g. a password
- Something a user has e.g. a security token
- Something a user is e.g. biometrics such as fingerprints or facial recognition
It provides an extra layer of security beyond the traditional username and password authentication. The aim is to make it more difficult for unauthorised users to gain access.
We think it’s critical to use MFA in business settings, but it’s also important to use it personally too.
Adding extra security steps to the login process protects online accounts such as email, banking and social media.
MFA authenticator apps
Multi-factor authentication apps are mobile applications that generate one-time codes (‘something a user has’) for use in the MFA process, providing an additional layer of security for user accounts by requiring a second factor, in addition to a password (‘something a user knows’), to access the account.
They typically work by generating a unique code that changes every 30 seconds or so. When a user attempts to log in to a protected account, they are prompted to enter the code generated by the MFA app in addition to their password. So even if an attacker manages to obtain the user’s password, they still cannot access the account with the additional authentication factor provided by the MFA app.
Popular MFA authenticator apps include Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator and LastPass. They are available for free download on iOS and Android devices.
Reasons to introduce MFA to your business
Microsoft analysed over 30 billion authentications made by its users over a 12-month period and found that users who enabled MFA were 99.9% less likely to be compromised by a cyber-attack.
So it’s clearly a no-brainer that implementing MFA should be a key part of your business’ security strategy, but let’s have a look in detail at the reasons why:
- Enhanced security
Passwords are no longer enough to protect against cyber threats. MFA adds an extra layer of security making it more difficult for hackers to gain access. - Regulatory compliance
Many industries are required to comply with various regulations. For example, holiday park operators who accept credit card payments must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS.) MFA is often a requirement for compliance, and failure to do so can result in penalties and fines. - Cost-effective
The cost of implementing MFA is relatively low compared to the cost of a data breach which could result in the loss of revenue, legal liabilities and, most importantly, reputational damage. - Easy to use
MFA has become more and more user-friendly over the years. For example, many applications offer push notifications to authenticate a user, making the process quick and easy. You might have experienced this yourself when using your credit or debit card for an online payment.MFA can be used with a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets. - Save yourself any stress
As the owner or operator of a holiday park business, there’s always something to worry about! Implementing MFA means you can stop worrying about security attacks, phishing scans and weak passwords.
And while regular cyber security awareness training for all team members is something we definitely recommend too, MFA means there’s much less chance of a team member making an innocent mistake and revealing their passwords etc to a fake login site.
As the threat landscape continues to evolve and hackers become even more sophisticated, businesses must take proactive measures and adopt MFA to protect their sensitive data, comply with regulatory requirements, and reduce the risk of financial loss and reputational damage.
In our opinion, it should be seen as a crucial non-negotiable tool in a business’ cybersecurity arsenal.
The good news is that we can implement MFA for you as part of our flexible Managed IT Services.
Book a ‘no strings’ 30-minute chat with us today to find out more.
