As beautiful and exciting as the digital world is today, it holds its share of terror, filled with distasteful and fake media, awful memes, and even nasty data breaches that go straight for your personal information. Pros and cons grow by the day in the digital world.
With that in mind, we users must safeguard ourselves with best practices and tools that help us fight against these evil beings. From browser extensions to VPN, we can access mediums that protect us. Today, we will give an overview of the security mechanisms designed to enhance the protection of your online accounts–the authentication brothers known as two-factor and multi-factor.
The beauty of authentication. This is the process of verifying the identity of a user attempting to access a digital system, application, or simple service. This ensures that only authorized individuals can gain entry while keeping the fakes out. Now, authentication involves passwords, PINs, security questions about your childhood pet name, and, recently, biometric data like fingerprints or face recognition.
Long story short, it helps you by giving you keys that you only can hold.
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But what's the difference between 2FA and MFA?
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). As the name clearly dictates, this authentication process mandates using two distinct verification factors to grant access. In typical fashion, this involves combining your trusty password with a temporary code that will be sent to either your email. The keyword here is temporary code, which adds an extra layer of security since it utilizes fleeting codes that will be rendered useless after some time.
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Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). MFA takes security a step higher as it incorporates multiple verification factors. As stated previously, MFA can build on your password and OTP while including an extra layer of security like biometric security. By demanding multiple pieces of verification, MFA can significantly bolster your account’s defense against various threats.
Conclusion. In terms of user experience, both 2FA and MFA introduce an additional step during the login process. While this may seem slightly inconvenient, their enhanced security far outweighs the minor inconvenience. MFA, with its inclusion of multiple factors, offers a higher level of protection and is recommended, particularly for accounts containing sensitive information—better safe than sorry friends!
The extra time spent on authentication is an investment in safeguarding your digital presence from cyber threats. Ultimately, the choice between 2FA and MFA depends on the sensitivity of the data you're protecting and your willingness to prioritize security over absolute convenience. If it is for your email access, MFA may be the better choice, but if it is your anime playlist of “to be watched,” I think 2FA is better.
Speaking of extra security, you can separate your own Internet usage from your family with PLDT Home’s MyOwnWiFi. With this upgrade, experience uninterrupted surfing the Internet without being burdened by your family’s consumption today!