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Physical Security: Multi-factor Authentication
There are three ways to authenticate that a user has legitimate access to a system:
A password, which is something that you know;
A token, which is something that you have; and
A biometric reading, which is something that you are.
By themselves, the first two do not provide ironclad security. The former can be guessed, and the second can be stolen. A biometric reading, in contrast, is harder—though not impossible—to fake. Consider that the CSI guys lift fingerprints all of the time. It probably would not be too hard to reproduce the fingerprint using Silly Putty and papier-mâché. Or, if I may be gruesome, if they really want your access, they could just steal your finger.
Not just a clever phrase, multi-factor authentication (or MFA) is the practice of requiring multiple factors in order to gain access to a system.
A password, which is something that you know;
A token, which is something that you have; and
A biometric reading, which is something that you are.
By themselves, the first two do not provide ironclad security. The former can be guessed, and the second can be stolen. A biometric reading, in contrast, is harder—though not impossible—to fake. Consider that the CSI guys lift fingerprints all of the time. It probably would not be too hard to reproduce the fingerprint using Silly Putty and papier-mâché. Or, if I may be gruesome, if they really want your access, they could just steal your finger.
Not just a clever phrase, multi-factor authentication (or MFA) is the practice of requiring multiple factors in order to gain access to a system.
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