Multi-Factor Authentication: More Secure Access to Cloud Apps

Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, Workday: These and other applications in the cloud have become so commonplace that it’s hard to imagine an organization that doesn’t rely on them daily. They’re great for operating efficiently and keeping costs manageable, but what about the security implications?  Considering that the most widely used SaaS apps are the ones that contain a company’s most sensitive data, it’s an important question. After all, it’s hard to rest easy when the only thing standing between your company’s critical information and a cyber attack is a username and password.

At a time when 81 percent of hacking-related data breaches are password-related, the seriousness of the threat posed by password-protected SaaS apps is clear. The more of these apps an organization relies on, the bigger the problem—especially if all the cloud apps and platforms in play have different access policies and password requirements, as is often the case. Thus, the inherent risk associated with password-based security grows as the use of cloud apps grows. And it’s definitely growing: The market for SaaS applications is forecast to be worth $117.1 billion by 2021, nearly double its estimated value in 2018.

An important step you can take to rein in the risk is to add multi-factor authentication (MFA) to the access environment to prevent your organization from leaning so heavily on passwords for cloud application access. Multi-factor authentication applied across a growing number of cloud applications makes access more secure, not only because it adds another (Read more...)