MFA.
A security mechanism requiring two or more verification factors to access a resource. Factors fall into three categories: something you know (password), something you have (phone, token), something you are (biometric). MFA is the single highest-ROI control for most organizations.
MFA is the single most cost-effective control most organizations can deploy. Credential phishing remains the most common initial access vector, and a stolen password alone is useless against MFA in most configurations. Not all MFA is equal: SMS codes are vulnerable to SIM-swap attacks and should be considered the floor, not the ceiling. Push notifications (TOTP apps like Authy / Google Authenticator) are stronger. Hardware security keys (YubiKey, Titan) using FIDO2 / WebAuthn are the gold standard — phishing-resistant by design. Roll out hardware keys first to administrators, then to high-value accounts, then broadly.
Connected concepts.
IAM
Identity and Access ManagementThe discipline of managing digital identities — users, service accounts, machine identities — and controlling their access to systems and data. Core practices include SSO, MFA, RBAC, PAM, and periodic access reviews.
Zero Trust
Zero-trust security architectureA security model that assumes no user or device is trusted by default, regardless of whether they’re inside the network perimeter. Every access request is verified, authenticated, and authorized. Often summarized as "never trust, always verify."
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