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What is Two-Factor Authentication? Where Should You Use It?

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By Brian Donohue - Kaspersky

We’ve recorded podcasts about it. We’ve discussed it at length in a number of screencasts (which I have kindly embedded below). We’ve mentioned it indirectly in countless articles. But we’ve never taken the time to dedicate an article solely to explaining what two-factor authentication is, how it works, and where you should use it.

 

What is Two-Factor Authentication?

 

Two-factor authentication is a feature offered by a number of online service providers that adds an additional layer of security to the account login process by requiring that a user provide two forms of authentication. The first form – in general – is your password. The second factor can be any number of things. Perhaps the most popular second factor of authentication is the SMS or email code. The general theory behind two-factor is that, in order to log in, you must know something and possess something. Thus, in order to access your company’s virtual private network, you might need a password and a USB stick.

 

Two-factor is no panacea to prevent account hijacks, but it’s a formidable barrier to anything that would try to compromise an account protected by it. I think it is pretty well known that passwords are severely flawed: weak ones are easy to remember and easy to guess; strong ones are hard to guess but hard to remember. Because of this, people who are already bad at creating passwords, use the same ones over and over again. Two-factor at least makes it so an attacker would have to figure out your password and have access to your second factor, which would generally mean stealing your cell phone or compromising your email account.

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Kaspersky Lab - Your Child and Social Networks

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Your Child and Social Networks

May 30, 2014 Featured Post, Security, Tips 1 Comments

Like it or not, the means of communication our children use have changed drastically over the past decade. They are far less eager to call or meet each other, but are constantly available online in social networks. When it comes to 11 to 14-year-olds, depending on what’s hip in their environment and, to some extent, the local legislation, your son or daughter would want to register a Facebook or Vkontakte account. Yet as a parent, you are the sole bearer of the responsibility over the way your child’s online life goes.

Prohibiting never works

Some parents would save it for a ‘special day’ like ‘sweet 16’ or some other important event when allowing their child to register a social media account. This effort is futile because a teenager will do it when his peers do, not willing to become an outcast. If you impose a iron-clad ban on social networks, your child could do it secretly. You don’t want that. If you can’t fight it, then take the lead.

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Kaspersky Lab scores highest in all three categories

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Kaspersky Lab scores highest in all three categories of Q1 Dennis Technology Labs Anti-Malware Tests

Kaspersky Lab is pleased to announce that the company’s products received the highest AAA rating in all three of Dennis Technology Labs’ test categories – Home Anti-Virus Protection, Small Business Anti-Virus Protection and Enterprise Anti-Virus Protection – in the first quarter of 2014.

Testing by Dennis Technology Labs takes place in a specially created lab, assessing the capabilities of various antivirus solutions in conditions that are as realistic as possible. Testing involves an analysis of how the products react to the very latest live threats. Two aspects were assessed in all three categories: Protection Rating, which showed how well the products handled malware, and Legitimate Software Rating, which showed how effectively they handled non-malicious programs. The ideal anti-malware suite was expected to block all threats and allow all legitimate programs. Products scored points for successfully blocking threats, but lost points for any false positives. The overall scores were converted into one of the following ratings: AAA, AA, A or B.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 was the top performer in the Home Anti-Virus Protection category, correctly identifying all the legitimate programs, blocking 98% of the malware and neutralizing the remaining 2%. The Kaspersky Lab solution received the highest number of points of all the participants and was awarded an AAA rating.

In the Small Business Anti-Virus Protection category Kaspersky Small Office Security also failed to trigger a single false positive, blocking 94% of threats and neutralizing another 5% – a performance that resulted in another AAA rating.

Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business also turned in an excellent performance in the Enterprise Anti-Virus Protection category, blocking 94% of threats and neutralizing another 3% to earn yet another AAA rating for Kaspersky Lab.

“A wealth of experience in the field of cyber security and industry-proven technology allow Kaspersky Lab to create state-of-the-art products for IT infrastructures of all sizes. It means we can offer our customers a wide range of reliable solutions equally capable of securing a home computer or a major corporation,” commented Oleg Ishanov, Anti-Malware Research Director at Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab products also received top AAA ratings in all three categories of Dennis Technology Labs’ previous round of Anti-Malware Tests conducted from October to December 2013. More details about recent test results and testing methodology can be found on the Dennis Technology Labs website.