Protecting Your Email with Two Factor Authentication

Gone are the days when sending formal information, approvals or recommendation was a tedious task and it took days to receive it. With technology at its best, the electronic mail or more popularly called as the E-mail is what it takes to send messages within a fraction of seconds, today. But, with the increasing hacks and threats to the digital world, are the private messages really secured? The answer is NO. This is why businesses should install security measures to protect their critical business information exchanged via the e-mails. The latest security protocol for e-mail protection is the two factor authentication system.

An Insight on Two Factor Authentication

The two factor authentication method verifies an individual’s identity with three identifiers. The process is abbreviated as Two factor Authentication Solution or multi factor Authentication. The three identifiers that make this process efficient are:

·         Something You Know

·         Something You Have

·         Something You Are

The traditional way of protecting e-mails was to have an 8 character password. But, hacking password is easy. Thus, to increase the security level 2FA method provides different layers of security. Let us understand how it works.

Something You Know

Passwords today not only include characters but patterns, too. The pattern based authentication is common for Windows 8 and Android devices. Additionally, ATMs require the account holders to memorize a 4 digit PIN which gives them access to their card.

Thus, a strong password must have a special character, alphabet, and number and should be lengthy, too. You can rephrase your existing password to make it appear unique and acceptable rather than creating a simple one.

Something You Have

Now that you have the password ready with you, there is another step to ensure the security of your e-mails and that is a token. Today, tokens generated are of two types:

·         Online tokens (response or challenge)

·         Offline tokens (OTP based, sequence or time)

Online tokens are a good Two Fctor Authentication For Email method for financial transactions. The individual participates in the process and electronically signs the transaction to make it tamper proof.

Offline tokens, on the other hand does not require direct participation and is the safest 2FA method to protect e-mails from hackers. How? Offline tokens generate a new PIN or digit code to confirm the transaction and thus it becomes difficult for the hackers to guess the new pattern or the digits to break the security.

Something You Are

This last leg of the authentication process revolves around you. It involves facial recognition, biometric scan, and fingerprints, because they are unique to a person. However, they can be tampered with and accuracy can cause a problem when your body is too cold or having blisters. Moreover, this authentication process is expensive.

Regardless of your business size, taking a step towards evaluating the security of your e-mail can save you a great deal of loss.