New Cyber Security Protocol Announced

As everyone know, cyber security, or the practice of protecting IT assets (both in terms of data and equipment) is a critical industry.  Cyber criminals have made an entire industry from acquiring and destroying the data of an organization, often through the compromising of the credentials necessary to access that data.The first layer of security is usually referred to as “Authentication”.  Simply put, it’s a way of proving to that gatekeeper (which could be an application or a device) that the party attempting to access the data is in fact a legitimate user.Initially the primary (and only) Authentication method was knowledge-based.  A user would have information that (in theory) only that person would know.  And so, the “user/password” combination formed the backbone of authentication security.  And so it was for decades.  This single method was often compromised by the users themselves, with easy-to-guess (“password” as a password) password, or the passwords shared (post-it notes left on monitors).Most recently cyber criminals became adept at coercing users into giving them their credentials with the promise of either legitimate support or critical need.The initial response over the past couple of years has been the addition of more layers of authentication.  This strategy is called “Multi-Factor Authentication” or MFA.  Sometimes it’s also referred to as “Two Factor Authentication” or 2FA.  In both cases an additional layer of authentication is required.  This can be a biological piece (ie, fingerprint) or device based (an app on a mobile device specifically for this purpose).2FA and MFA have both proved useful, but they face resistance from end users for being intrusive and arduous.  Today Dr. Jack Griffin of Wells Laboratories has introduced ZFA or Zero Factor Authentication.“Cyber criminals are themselves too predictable”, explained Dr. Griffin.  “When they go after the credentials of a user, they automatically assume that there are credentials, whether they be single or multiple factors.  ZFA automatically detects that they’re trying a SFA, 2FA or MFA methodology to access their data.  ZFA immediately blocks the criminals out.  It doesn’t matter what technique they’re using.  ZFA is immune to all xFA strategies.  If there’s an attempt at any level of authentication, access is blocked.  Only by using Zero Factor Authentication will a user be allowed in.”“ZFA is essentially invisible to all xFA strategies.  And there are no passwords to memorize.  No fingerprint readers.  No apps on phones or dongle devices.  And when the bad guys try to mimic any of these things, they’re immediately locked out.  And they don’t know why, so they might choose to try harder (which will do them no good), or, more likely, they’ll give up and move on to their next target.”ZFA will soon be available on Apple’s next generation mobile devices, the jPhone.  Their slogan will be “There’s no authentication like Zero Factor Authentication!”