A recent survey conducted by HID Global revealed that organizations with more than 250 employees in the Middle East region favoured multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a reliable method for employee and customer verification.
Ninety-five percent of respondents said that MFA was a fundamental requirement at their organization, which demonstrates the reliability and robust adoption of the technology. The survey exclusively polled C-level executives and senior IT decision makers across large enterprises, specifically government entities, leading banking and financial instructions, utilities, and oil & gas companies across the Middle East.
Of the 5% of respondents who cited cost and a lack of skilled in-house technical resources as a critical barrier to the adoption of MFA, 45% said that a cost-effective solution would encourage their organizations to adopt the technology. Also, 42% believe that a fast and secure method to access cloud- based data and application would make it a valuable investment.
The growing adoption of the cloud and cloud-based services is apparent with 69% of respondents’ organizations making use of the cloud and cloud-based applications, of which 70% of its MFA users were employees and 30% were customers. Of these customers, 28% used MFA to access online services; 30% used MFA to conduct online transactions, and 10% used MFA to access customer support and service.
MFA is the popular choice for organizations looking for a single authentication tool to access multiple platforms; 46% of respondents said that employees in their organization used MFA to access multiple functions, mainly collaboration solutions, sensitive data and mission-critical applications;15% of respondents used multi-factor authentication solutions only to access collaboration solutions, such as emails, databases and CRM’s.
“The results are conclusive that MFA solutions play a crucial role in helping large organizations validate identities and control access to critical information. At a time when businesses are constantly at risk from internal and external threats, MFA provides intelligent-based authentication capabilities to ensure simplified and secure access to data and cloud applications,” said Miguel Braojos, Vice President Global Sales IAM Solutions, at HID Global. “HID Global is empowering organizations to provide employees and customers with advanced authentication and intuitive experience to enhance the protection of their digital identities.”
More than half (56%) of respondents preferred MFA as a means of validation for a combination of features such as multiple security layers and the ability to limit access to the right people. Password and biometrics were the preferred combination for 34% of respondents, while 30% preferred the use of smart cards. MFA has helped 29% of respondents address the challenge of identity theft, while helping 27% of respondent’s secure access to data and applications.
