Can Authentication Innovations Protect Your Systems?

In the digital age, information security is often the most important aspect of your business. It’s easy to feel out of your depth, but these issues have to be faced. One of the biggest sources of information breaches or data theft is users within a company. You have great employees, but the majority of them are not computer security experts. In order to help them avoid some of the most costly mistakes, you want built-in protection in all of your computers and systems. That is where some of the latest innovations in user authentication can help.

Two-Factor Authentication

In general, two-factor authentication (2FA) has been around for decades. You probably have some familiarity with it. It’s becoming so commonplace now that Apple no longer allows users to opt out of the service.

The Premise of 2FA is pretty easy. If you add an extra layer of authentication, you make it harder for people to access information that shouldn’t be at their disposal. Traditional 2FA involves using a password and a trusted device at the same time. In most cases, a phone or mobile device can serve as one authentication factor while the password covers the other half.

Innovations in 2FA are making this security cheaper and more accessible than ever before. Google currently has the leading third-party service. With their 2FA program, you can choose any mobile device to serve as part of the system. Once you register the trusted device, you can utilize a QR code to trigger a temporary passcode. That, plus your personal password, serves to unlock digital access.

What’s exciting is that Google offers this service for free. While you may need to invest in making proprietary software or systems compatible, Google works with developers to enable 2FA on pretty much any software that you could want to secure. When applied, it dramatically reduces the risk of unauthorized access to anything you deem worthy of security.

Biometric Authentication

Biometrics access is another old idea that is seeing innovative new approaches. Smartphones are leading the revolution by utilizing fingerprints and facial recognition to replace traditional passwords. The effects have proven themselves; biometric security is proving far superior to simple password authentication.

Despite that, it can be tricky to utilize biometric security across broad applications. People don’t want to leave this extremely personal data in the hands of just anyone, even employers. MasterCard, of all places, is supplying in interesting solution for the problem. Their biometric card uses a personal identifier. It’s an add-on device that locally stores your fingerprint information. When you need to access the account, you swipe the card, supply your fingerprint, and then the authenticating device establishes your authentication with the MasterCard servers. With this, you get the security of biometric locking without ever giving your fingerprint to MasterCard themselves.

This same application can work with keycards or pretty much any security you want to implement. It might cost more than other solutions, but the level of security is extremely high.

ID Cards

ID cards are one of the oldest authentication tricks in the books. You have a card with your picture and your official authentication on the card. That’s what determines your access. For decades, ID cards have been combined with magnetic strips, and that’s how you bypass secure locks. It’s proven pretty reliable.

Now, with RF chips and other advancements, you can lock much more than a door with a simple ID card. You can restrict access to computers, secure equipment or anything else that shouldn’t be easy to access. If you already use an ID card system, it’s worth looking into ways to expand the authority of the keycards to make your security tighter and easier to manage.

USB Keys

The last authentication we’re looking at today is one of the newer innovations. It takes the idea of an ID card and makes it a lot more universal. USB keys are physical devices that are necessary to gain access to computer systems. This is secure for a couple of reasons. First, the USB key allows authentication without any external networking. Something truly sensitive can be kept completely offline. With the USB key restriction, it becomes impossible to remotely hack the system. That still isn’t absolutely foolproof, but you’re looking at a substantial security improvement.

The second value of a USB key is that it isn’t subject to user error. The biggest problem with passwords is that people choose things that are easily cracked. The USB key completely eliminates that problem. It supplies an authentication protocol that simply exceeds human limitations. Because of that, cracking a USB key isn’t a realistic proposition. Instead, it has to be physically stolen, and that makes security much more reliable.

There are a lot of ways to make your sensitive systems harder to access and more reliably secured. The latest innovations show promise in eliminating the most common sources of hacks and data leaks. The question we always run into is, “When is this technology worth the cost?” There’s no simple answer to this question, but there are some easy considerations. On average, a data breach will cost tens of millions of dollars, plus any liability and damages you may incur. If you keep anything sensitive on a single-password authentication system, it’s time to look at upgrading. The risk far outweighs the cost of some of the simpler two-factor authentication methods. Which one is best for you will depend on many factors, but you won’t reach the right answer unless you start having those important conversations.

About the Author: Jeff Poirior

Jeff brings 25 years of telecommunications and information technology management experience in voice and data networking, server support, and telephony and security; with a significant emphasis on customer service. Prior to joining Valicom, he was chief of the infrastructure support section for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Jeff was the vice president of operations for CC&N, overseeing telecommunications, help desk, data and desk side support services. Prior to that, he served as the associate director of technical resources for Covance, responsible for managing systems and network operations supporting 1700 users in Wisconsin and Virginia. He has also led data center operations at Magnetek Electric, supporting mainframe systems, client/server applications, telephony systems, and computer-aided design. Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cardinal Stritch University and a master’s degree in business administration from University of Phoenix. In addition, Jeff is a past board member of the Wisconsin Telecommunication Association.