Protect your personal and business assets with MFA

A few simple steps can protect you from unauthorized access to your online accounts

If you know me, it probably won’t surprise you to know that I read many articles every month about Cybersecurity and Internet Safety protocols. Let’s be honest: Internet security has been a real concern for many years. It can occur at a very simplistic stage but then mushroom into a huge catastrophe. One that could cost you a great deal of time, money and frustration. I’ve listened to countless stories from victims who wish they had taken a few necessary steps beforehand.

I received a call once from a retired widow who had navigated to the wrong website and had her computer compromised. The hacker immediately gained access to her computer and started to remotely open her browser and copy and pasted other private information. She called me in a panic and wanted my advice about how she should proceed. Needless to say, we spent many hours securing her bank accounts and other financial accounts. We also had to address the issue with her computer. I was able to find the poisoned pill that started this mess, and we took corrective actions on her machine: changing passwords for all of her online accounts and even her social media accounts.

After that, we purchased Internet security software to help protect her from new attacks. Finally, and most importantly, I introduced her to a new term and process. While nothing is foolproof nor 100% guaranteed, there is a safety precaution that I implore everyone to start using – it’s called Multi Factor Authentication or MFA for short.

Most folks know that when you log in to a website – your bank account or email account, for example – you’re asked for your username or email address and your password. These are your credentials to gain access to your account. Well, if your technology (phone, computer, tablet, etc.) has been compromised and infiltrated then the bad guys might be able to gain access to your username and password for this account.

However, if you had enabled MFA, after entering your credentials, a notification window would have appeared. That window would ask you to enter a special code that would be sent to your mobile device. Since the bad guys won’t have access to your mobile device, it gives you another line of protection against unauthorized access. Sure it’s an extra step in the process, but it’s well worth it, especially if you’ve ever had someone break into your house, business, car or computer. Hindsight is 20/20. Protect yourself and put a few measures in place to protect your personal and business assets!