NCSAM Week 2 - October 9, 2023
You need more than a password to protect online accounts. While mildly inconvenient, enabling MFA makes you significantly less likely to get hacked.
Fact: Weak authentication security is the leading cause of data breaches, accounting for 76% of compromised records.
Enabling and using multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides a second layer of defense against account compromise. Passwords alone are insufficient as they are prone to theft through a variety of social engineering and phishing tactics. William & Mary uses a product called DUO to ensure all access to sensitive systems and services are protected by MFA. Individuals download an app on their phone and when authenticating to W&M systems they are provided a prompt to deliver the second authentication factor.
No app or phone available? No problem! DUO can pre-deliver authentication codes to users for use later when needing the second authentication factor. W&M strongly recommends that you also enable MFA on systems you interact with outside of W&M. Think about your banking credentials and access to personal files in Google or other cloud platforms. Protect yourself from identify theft and financial fraud by making it as difficult as possible to access your data.
W&M's Information Security Team can be reached at infosec@wm.edu.
Questions? Contact the Technology Support Center (TSC)
757-221-4357 (HELP) | [[support]] | Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
