Who isn’t offering free two-factor authentication (2FA) these days? Our CTO Chris Russell explains why free is not always free when it comes to 2FA.
Is there really such a thing as free two-factor authentication? This blog looks at the hidden costs of free two-factor authentication solutions and why you may be better off with a paid authentication platform that offers complete control and continuity.
Who isn’t offering free two-factor authentication (2FA) these days? Google, Microsoft and even Facebook offer basic 2FA functionality, and let’s not forget high street banks. They do the job, of course – to a point. Access is secured to their particular sites and applications. All this is quite sufficient for a personal user but when it comes to enterprises there are so many more authentication considerations.
Business users do not want to lose work time hunting for tokens, trying to remember passwords or going through layer after layer of authentication, often for each individual application. A unified approach becomes very necessary to preserve and raise productivity. Data must be highly secure but there must be a no-fuss way to access it.
Hidden costs of multi-factor authentication…and how to avoid them…
The price you pay for your solution is often just one element of the cost. Choosing the wrong solution or poor implementation can raise time/per-user costs and eat into your productivity benefits.
A one size fits all approach can be a false economy when compared to working with a local partner to get the exact solution that meets all of your exact business requirements.
A simple and easy authentication process is the key consideration when choosing a solution. Ease of use will be a deciding factor for employees choosing to use remote access. This decision has a big impact on remote monitoring of key services such as email and CRM and will ultimately impact on your ROI.
Loss of Control
In addition, accepting free “off-the-shelf” authentication solutions offered by the likes of Cloud service providers may be a compromise to security or have an unnecessary impact on usability. By implementing a tunable authentication solution you do not need to make this compromise and that access to data is always at the control of your enterprise, so you are making no compromises with your data security.
Free is not always free, and using a paid solution which integrates with your current platforms may prove to be better valued. Look at Swivel Secure’s flexible user licensing options and FAQs to learn more.
