In today’s fast-paced world, everything is done on the internet including official or personal activities. Digital transformation has certainly brought ease to our lives and has filled the communication gaps. Thanks to technological advancements, businesses can explore so many new opportunities but unfortunately, technological advancement has also made it easier for criminals to take advantage of the situation. In order to secure online platforms, 2-factor authentication is the handiest solution. Let’s take a deeper dive into the significance of 2-factor authentication and how it secures from internet scams.

The Growing Cyberattacks

Gone are the days of conventional methods of physically stealing people’s cash or even their identity information. Now the criminal’s have become more sophisticated and they use the internet, AI and machine learning to get access to anyone’s online accounts. Businesses are not safe from it either, they face financial loss due to cyberattacks. Criminals have even found ways to attack the digital methods of transactions.

A report on cybersecurity by Norton states that up to ￡130 billion have been stolen by criminals in cyberattacks from the consumers and out of which, ￡4.6 billion has been stolen through the internet.

Here are some types of online cyberattacks:

●    Identity theft

This occurs when the identity of the person is stolen and criminals use it to gain their benefits. Sometimes, criminals use this to get the banking information of the person and use it to steal their money or use this to steal their credit card information and then use it for their own benefits. Identity theft can even get criminals to access a person’s social security number and all the benefits that government has to offer including their medical treatment, their pension or unemployment claims, or even their tax refund.

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●    Phishing Attack

A phishing attack is also known as social engineering attack and it is used to manipulate the user into giving their important and personal data to criminals. This is an official-looking email that asks the person to submit their personal credentials and once that is done, criminals can hack into that particular account. Cybercriminal pretends to be a credible source in their email but in reality, they are just trying to harm the victim.

●    Malware

This is the type of cyberattack that affects a lot of businesses. In this attack, the criminal sends a link to the employee of the company or someone at the executive post in a business organization. A link is sent from a credible source and when the employee opens the link, a virus enters the computer and the criminal has access to the victim’s system. They can use that to get access to all their accounts and even at times they can monitor the victim’s cyber activities. Most of the times, victims of the malware attack are unaware of the attack for quite some time until the criminal has caused serious harm to the victim.

●    Ransomware

Mostly criminals networks perform this type of attack. In this attack, business entities are digitally held hostages by the cybercriminal group. What they do is, steal the company’s important data and then use that to blackmail the company into paying a certain amount of money. If the company refuses, they leak the important and confidential data of the company to public access. Important information and client data are lost and this can cost the company with clients and the company might have to face lawsuits.

2-Factor Authentication to the Rescue

For fraud prevention, businesses must take all the necessary measures. 2-factor authentication is so far the simplest and the effective method. It is a form of identity verification twitch two steps. The first step is common that everyone has to perform. It is setting up the first layer of security, the basic setting of ID and passwords. The second factor is the extra layer of security. In this, the end-user provides the number or email ID. Whenever they try to log in, the platform sends them a 4-digit code on their registered phone number to verify their identity. The criminal can steal the credentials through cyber attacks but they can’t physically get access to their phone number to steal their information. This is why 2-factor authentication has proven to be an effective method.