Following the news that there was a cyber-attack on the UK parliament, James Romer, Chief Security Architect – EMEA at SecureAuth Corporation says..
“It’s worrying that members of our parliament do not seem to be clued up on the security risks of weak passwords. The hackers specifically probed for those who were not following government protocol, and only updating passwords by simply varying letters and numbers. This leaves the door wide open for hackers. Individuals, especially those in governmental positions, need to have security more front of mind and realise that even the most minute security weakness can be exploited to gain access.
“Liam Fox, International trade secretary, hit the nail on the head by saying, “warning to everyone, we need more security and better passwords”. The way organisations approach authentication and securing credentials needs to be rethought. Simple two-factor authentication is no longer enough to safeguard against today’s attacks. It is important to deliver a form of authentication which feels low effort for the user yet has enhanced layers of protection working in the background. Adaptive access control techniques and identity based detection work invisibly to the user but work to protect, detect, and ultimately remediate attacks essentially rendering stolen credentials useless.”