Businesses and employees must embrace multi-factor authentication

Businesses and employees must embrace multi-factor authentication to prevent increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks,  according to a new whitepaper by Chubb,  Email: Is the Digital Door Propped Open for Identity Hijackers?

Cyber criminals have evolved their deceptive practices around email cyber crimes, including the use of Business Email Compromise (BEC), and often access email accounts through weak passwords, the whitepaper, which was co-authored by Chubb and Microsoft, said.

The whitepaper explores how BEC works, why it is successful, and the importance of using multi-factor authentication as a safeguard.

Patrick Thielen, senior vice president of Chubb North America financial lines, said BEC attacks, which often result in employees erroneously transferring money to criminals under the auspices of their bosses' supposed directions, exemplify how cyber crime is quickly evolving.

"As employees become savvier about not clicking on unfamiliar links or downloading unknown attachments, cyber criminals are just as quickly pivoting to different means—hijacking email accounts and impersonating executives,” he said.

Christopher Arehart, senior vice president of Chubb North America financial lines, said: "Whether using a pin, biometric data, or tools like an authentication app, multi-factor authentication is easy to implement and can help close the digital door on cyber criminals."

"The old saw of an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure remains true in the cyber world," added Joram Borenstein, general manager of modern work and security partnerships at Microsoft. "By layering authentication across multiple factors, consumers and employers make it harder for criminals to breach defenses and get at your business and personal data."