Newspoll: MFA is worth it

YARMOUTH, Maine — As organizations and individuals do their best to shore up security in an increasingly insecure world, there’s a race for the best method for securing private data. 

For the Security Systems News (SSN) August News Poll, we asked readers to discuss their use of multifactor authentication (MFA) and what that means for their organization’s security posture. It should probably come as no surprise that 100% of poll respondents responded they use some type of MFA for securing their online accounts.  

“If typing in an extra code keeps these pesky hackers out of my email, so be it,” one poll respondent wrote. 

The Chinese state employed as many as 50,000 to 100,000 hackers in 2017, according to one estimate, and Russian hackers have been inside major Ukrainian telecoms since at least May of 2023, according to Reuters. 

As for the most commonly trusted method, standard MFA (push notification) was the top pick for more than half of respondents, but a sizeable number of respondents picked biometric authentication.  

“Three factor and four factor – depends on threat, shrinkage, environment, throughput,” one respondent wrote 

As for the trade offs that occur between security and convenience, half of respondents reported being un-phased, with answers ranging from indifference to a lack of concern. The other half of respondents seemed to recognize the potential threat that arises from a lack of convenient security methods and noted that they are very concerned about the trade offs. 

That’s it for this month’s poll, be sure to check securitysystems.com to participate in our latest news poll, where we look at the effects of climate change on residential security.