Single-factor authentication is like hiding your house key under a mat by the front door. It feels relatively safe, and it might go unnoticed and unused by strangers for the rest of your life. Or, it might get duplicated and shared. Multi-factor authentication (MFA), on the other hand, is like keeping your front door secure with a scan of your face and a key that resides in a lockbox.
The Office of Cybersecurity highly recommends implementing multi-factor authentication for any account (professional or personal) that permits it. In fact, to reduce the risk of cyberattacks on students, faculty and employees, the office has made Duo MFA a requirement of any @wisc.edu account.
The benefits of Duo multi-factor authentication include:
- Ensuring users are legitimate at every access attempt
- Verifying the trustworthiness of each device used to access UW applications
- Limiting and monitoring the exposure of sensitive information
- Securing permissions for every user in any context
Learn more about the benefits of Duo MFA and (if you’re new to the Universities of Wisconsin) how to set it up (Source: it.wisc.edu).
For more information regarding multi-factor authentication, visit the Cybersecurity Awareness Month website (Source: cam.it.wisc.edu).