How Hackers Access Your Accounts While You Sleep
Do you know how hackers access your accounts while you sleep? It’s more common than you think. Do you ever get annoyed by the constant stream of alerts coming from your MFA app? Well, cybercriminals are aware of this too. Therefore capitalizing on “MFA Fatigue” to try and gain access to sensitive business accounts.
MFA or Multi-Factor Authentication is an essential part of protecting your data. It adds an extra layer of protection by requiring you to verify your identity in two or more ways. Like a code sent to your phone or email address.
However, the constant notifications can become overwhelming.
Attackers are aware of this annoyance and bombard employees with MFA notifications, sometimes in the middle of the night. Doing this when you would be sleeping increases the likelihood of someone authenticating the login attempt simply through frustration, or to get the notifications to stop.
But don’t fret. There’s a new weapon to fight MFA fatigue.
Microsoft Authenticator is introducing Number Matching as an effort to ensure the MFA notice you receive matches to the proper login attempt. This is an effort to stop cybercriminals from taking advantage of notification fatigue.
How Number Matching Works
When you receive an MFA notification, you are shown a randomly generated number. You then must enter this number to authenticate your login attempt and prove you’re not a cybercriminal attempting to access company data.
But that’s not all. Additionally, Microsoft Authenticator supports biometric authentication, so you are able to use your face, fingerprints, or other physical features to prove your identification and fight against MFA fatigue.
With these security measures in place, your company can stay one step ahead of online fraudsters and better safeguard your sensitive data.
As a patron of Microsoft Authenticator, number matching is already available to you. All you need to do is make sure the app is up-to-date and you will be protected.
If you are currently using another form of MFA and want to look at ways to improve or simplify your security, get in touch. We’d be happy to help.
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