MFA is requiring people to confirm identity in more than one way, which provides greater assurance that they really are who they claim to be—which reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data. Any combination of two or more factors qualifies as Multi-Factor Authentication. 

Watch the quick video below demonstrating simple Mobile Authentication using RSA SecurID Access.

• Something you know—PIN, password or answer to a security question
• Something you have—OTP, token, trusted device, smart card or badge
• Something you are—face, fingerprint, retinal scan or other biometric

Any of the following modern methods can be used in addition to a password to achieve multi-factor authentication:

• Biometrics—a form of authentication that relies on a device or application recognizing a biometric (i.e. a person’s fingerprint, facial features or the retina or iris of the eye). 
• Push to approve—a notification on someone’s device that asks the user to approve a request for access by tapping their device screen.
• One-time password (OTP)—an automatically generated set of characters that authenticates a user for one login session or transaction only. 
• SMS text—a means of delivering an OTP to a user’s smartphone or other device. 
• Hardware token or hard token—a small, portable OTP-generating device, sometimes referred to as a key fob. 
• Software token or soft token—a token that exists as a software app on a smartphone or other device rather than as a physical token.

Improving security: When there is just one mechanism protecting a point of access, such as a password, the only thing a bad actor has to do to gain entry is find a way to guess or steal that password. But, if entry also requires a second (or even a second and a third) factor of authentication, that makes it that much more difficult to get in, especially if the requirement is for something harder to guess or steal, like a biometric feature and/or an OTP.