Especially in recent times, cyber security is one of the most important factors involved in business and how to make sure that valuable, personal information for your business is protected. One of the most universally accepted methods of protecting company information is multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA, in layman’s terms, is a second round of proving or ”double-checking” a user’s identity when attempting to use company portals in order to complete various actions involved in a job. As important as this method of cyber security may be, there is a shocking prevalence of inconsistency when it comes to implementation of MFA. 

A large part of the issue is the roll out of MFA between various companies and vendors with some requiring it and those who do not, or a mix between the two. It is estimated that nearly half of companies surveyed by the Agent Council of Technology (ACT), 41 percent not required, and 11 percent not being required to use MFA. Despite these challenges of everyone getting on the same page in terms of using MFA, it is evident that it is not going away due to the ever increasing risks to cyber security. 

Agents can play a very critical role in improving the prevalence of MFA usage which only serves to benefit users and companies from an attack, so it is important to identify and then practice strategies to improve. As one can expect, staying up to date and educated on MFA can be critical for implementation. If done the right way, MFA can avoid up to 99.9 percent of attacks related to account compromise. Communication is another critical strategy to focus on as staying in contact with providers about updates. Updates and changes can be one of the most frustrating aspects as they can disrupt business, so ensuring proper communication is key to lessening the difficulty around implementation of MFA systems. The final strategy for today is to advocate for implementing MFA due to the efficacy of systems. As stated above, about 41 percent of surveyed companies are not utilizing MFA so it is important to get more companies on board and continue to work at decreasing the prevalence of cyber attacks.

References:

https://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/mag-features/2022/11/07/693270.htm