Tech tips: Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the most effective controls available to maintain the security of our data and systems.

Multi-factor authentication essentially means ‘a method of authentication that uses two or more authentication factors to authenticate a single claimant to a single authentication verifier’ (Australian Cyber Security Centre).

An 'authenticaton factor' could be:

• something you know (such as a password, PIN, or answer to a question)
• something you have (such as a token, smartcard or software certificate)
• something you are (such as a fingerprint or iris scan).

Multi-factor authentication is being introduced across a range of systems at the University of Adelaide. You can find out more about how to set it up and how it will work on our MFA page.