The language used in IT can often be confusing to the layman. In an effort to bust some jargon and explain some acronyms we asked our Systems Administrator, Paul Duffy, to explain exactly what 2FA is and how we use it at the IEDR:
Two Step Authentication or Two Factor Authentication (2FA) is an extra level of security that helps protect your account by requiring that you know something (a password) and you possess something (laptop, mobile phone, hardware token etc.) in order to login to your account. The benefit being that if your password is compromised, the attacker also needs to be in possession of your physical device (phone etc.) in order to successfully break into your account.
At IEDR, we offer two step authentication via Google Authenticator for our web console system (where you manage the .ie domains you own). We first do a once-off verification of your mobile device using a your phone’s camera to scan a generated barcode/string. Now your device is verified. In the future, any time you log in to the console with your password, a unique pin will be generated on your mobile. You have to use this pin in order to successfully log in. While this adds an extra step to the process it ensures that your account is much more secure.
By default we recommend that all our users use 2FA when setting up their console accounts, however if user so wishes they can disable it. We recommend that you don’t do this as you will lose the security benefits outlined above. To date 96% of our users that login to our console system use two step authentication.
