Passwords and 2FA

According to Malwarebytes there's only 1 important tip when it comes to passwords and that's to set up 2-Factor / Multi-Factor Authorisation (2FA / MFA).

As someone who is in and out of multiple apps on an hourly basis - Xero, MYOB, Microsoft, Hubspot, Asana, Facebook - the list goes on and on and on - passwords and 2FA are a right pain in the backside.

It's mentally draining. 

Do you feel the same?

Nonetheless, we've simply got to do it.

According to the Malwarebytes article "your account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised if you use MFA."

99.9% less likely!!

"2FA defeats credential stuffing, password spraying, AND password reuse, AND a bunch of other attacks."

I don't even know what most of that means, but it sounds nasty and I don't want a bar of it.

I also don't want my clients to have a bar of it.

As bookkeepers we simply must protect ourselves and our clients by using 2FA.

With many software companies it's not even an option, you just have to do it, and rightly so. 

Can you imagine the mess it could cause if, say, our Xero or Quickbooks account was hacked?

It's certainly a new world we're in isn't it.

Some good info in the article if you want to have a read. The comments section is also good to read and I find their weekly newsletter to be quite informative too.

One thing that the article mentions is "If you have a choice, the best form of 2FA is a password and hardware key, but you’ll need to buy a hardware key." 

I'd never heard of a password key before but in the comments someone pointed to this article by Zapier.

I'm off to buy myself a YubiKey.

Stay safe out there!

PS: Interested in working with me as your bookkeeping business coach? Send me an email to start the conversation.