Guard your data

“Precaution is better than the cure” – this is an immortal phrase that will shine in every generation to come. If you manage to safeguard your data before it is too late, this will either buy you some time until you get your device and data back, or do some other tricks. Let’s see some of the ways you can do so.

Multifactor authentication

This is one of the authentication modes that you want to activate to protect your data and privacy. The difference between a multifactor and single-factor authentication is quite obvious. For multifactor, you have multiple authentication procedures that you need to complete before you have access to the device. With the single factor, well, you just have a single factor authentication. At this point in time, username and password are not just enough. This kind of authentication factor is single-factor authentication. This is, not enough at this point.

Let’s break down the factors first. First, is the knowledge factor. This is something that the user name, password, date of birth, social security number, and so on. The second factor is ownership. This is something that the user possesses and is the owner. The third one is inherence. This is something that the user either is or they do. One example of an inherence factor would be a biometric identifier, like a fingerprint, or a retinal pattern. You will hear these three factors.

Other types of authentication

There are other authentication factors out there but those are not as commonly used for security authentication. For instance, a location factor is where you are. This is used to point to the individual’s location via GPS or some other methods. For instance, the individual may require to be physically somewhere you log in somewhere.

There is a bunch of other methods out there like a temporal factor. Over time, single-factor authentication grow from single to two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication also known as 2FA is still used as a term but it has gotten past its place and now there is Multifactor authentication, which is a combination of methods.

Honestly, this may sound like something so new but it has been out there for decades and used in places like a bank, and ATM machines. How is this multifactor? ATM is a card that you possess, PIN is something you know. But this is not the same as username and password, which has only one factor. Knowledge factor. You must activate the multifactor authentication to put up a heavy guard as long as you can.