Mutli-Factor Authentication

You might be wondering about Multi-Factor Authentication, which has sprung up all over the internet. The latest one was from one of our hosting companies, xneelo, who have now decided to enforce MFA for their logins from the 15th of May.

Multi-Factor Authentication is when a subscription service requires you to authenticate your login to their software, either via email or an authentication app, e.g. OneAuth or Google Authenticator, and you have to type in a code from the app on the login screen, every time you log in, or at least once a day.

We believe the reason to be the number of security breaches which have taken place in recent months. Amongst these were the CIPC (the South African companies registrar), Firstmac in Australia, Change Healthcare in the USA and on Tuesday, the British military payroll was hacked.

These security breaches probably did not come via an internet browser, which is where most of the MFA’s are enforced.

The best protection: Do NOT store your passwords on your browser.

We believe it to be wise not to store your passwords on your browser. Especially not your banking logins and other related financial services, such as a paygate.

There are a number of solutions available to store your passwords. These are apps which you can download or use in the cloud. They usually have paid versions, but the entry level could be free.

The problem is. How do you know they don’t have access to your passwords?

We have a very simple solution. An Excel spreadsheet. Or Numbers or Open Office. As long as it can be protected by a password and is resident on your desktop computer or your mobile phone. Not in the cloud somewhere.

We have set up an example spreadsheet, which you can use. You can download the file here: To-Protect

Now you can store your passwords, as many as you have, and you don’t have to worry about your internet browser compromising the security of your computer.

Please contact us if you need some help with it. [HELP]