Best Practices for Secure Authentication

Passwords are passé. Legacy authentication methods, or single-factor authentication, simply require a username and password to verify an individual's identity, making them easy to hack.

If your business is looking to beef up its security and ditch legacy usernames and passwords, consider implementing a combination of possession and ownership factors like biometrics and passkeys.

Lastly, one of the best ways to keep your customers and business safe is by using 2FA or even multi-factor authentication. Requiring these additional security features act like a second door lock. Even if the fraudsters unlock one lock, there is still another in place to keep the door shut.  Using MFA makes it harder for fraudsters to compromise every authentication method, helping keep your business and customers safe from identity theft, financial loss, or operational disruption.

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): GDPR aims to protect the data of all European Union citizens and requires all companies “implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk.” In order to protect your customers’ personal data and remain GDPR compliant, your business should use 2FA or multifactor authentication to safeguard personally identifiable information input across account logins and transactions, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive information and reducing the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access.

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): In order to remain HIPAA compliant, businesses must establish secure access protocols for electronically protected health information (ePHI). User authentication regulates user access, manages passwords, safeguarding devices, and promptly terminates accounts to ensure this sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. 

• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): If your business handles payment card information, you’ll need to meet PCI DSS requirements and protect cardholder data. Implementing strong authentication methods, such as 2FA or tokenization, adds an additional layer of security to protect your business against payment fraud. 

• Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2): PSD2, enacted by the European Banking Authority, mandates the use of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) or 2FA for all online transactions exceeding 30 Euros. It also requires all transactions use “dynamic linking,” or have unique authentication codes that are specific to the transaction amount and recipient and that both amount and recipient are made clear to the payer when authenticating. This regulation aims to enhance security measures and protect consumers in the digital banking landscape.