User permissions and two factor authentication are crucial components of a secure security infrastructure. They help reduce the risk of malicious insider activity or accidental data breaches and also ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) requires a user to enter credentials from two different categories to sign into an account. This could be something that the user knows (passwords, PIN codes and security questions) or something they have (one-time verification code sent to their phone or an authenticator program) or something they have (fingerprints or a face scan, or retinal scan).
2FA is usually a subset to Multi-Factor Authentication which includes more than two factors. MFA is a requirement in certain industries, such as healthcare banks, ecommerce, and healthcare (due to HIPAA regulations). The COVID-19 virus has brought new urgency to security for businesses that require two-factor authentication for remote workers.
Enterprises are living organisms, and their security infrastructures keep changing. New access points are created every day, users switch roles, hardware capabilities evolve and complex systems are put in the fingers of everyday users. It is essential to regularly reevaluate the two-factor authentication strategies regularly to ensure that they are keeping up with these changes. Adaptive authentication is a method to accomplish this. It is a form of contextual authentication that will trigger policies based on the timing, location and the manner in which a login request is received. Duo offers a central administrator dashboard that lets you easily manage and set these types of policies.