March 23, 2023 | John Pasquali Cybercriminals use email to trick users into giving away their personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. To protect against these threats, email multi-factor authentication (MFA) has emerged as an essential security measure. MFA is a security technique that requires users to provide two or more forms of authentication to gain access to their accounts. For example, a user might enter their password and then enter a one-time code sent to their mobile phone to verify their identity. This extra layer of security makes it much harder for cybercriminals to gain access to user accounts, even if they have obtained the user’s password through a phishing scam. Email MFA is an excellent way to protect against phishing scams. Phishing is a type of attack where cybercriminals send fraudulent emails that appear to come from a legitimate source. These emails often contain links to fake websites that look identical to the real website, but which are designed to steal the user’s login credentials or other personal information. With MFA enabled, even if a user enters their password on a fake website, the cybercriminal would still need the second form of authentication (e.g., the one-time code) to gain access to the account. Since the user’s mobile phone would receive the code, the cybercriminal would not have access to it, even if they had obtained the user’s password. Email MFA can also protect against other types of email-based attacks, such as business email compromise (BEC) and email account takeover (ATO). BEC is a type of attack where cybercriminals impersonate a company’s CEO or other high-level executive to trick employees into making fraudulent wire transfers or disclosing sensitive information. With MFA enabled, even if the cybercriminal has obtained the CEO’s password, they would still need the second form of authentication to gain access to the account. ATO is a type of attack where cybercriminals gain access to a user’s email account and use it to send fraudulent emails to the user’s contacts. With MFA enabled, even if the cybercriminal has obtained the user’s password, they would still need the second form of authentication to gain access to the account. In conclusion, email MFA is an essential security measure for protecting against phishing scams, BEC, ATO, and other email-based attacks. By requiring users to provide two or more forms of authentication, MFA makes it much harder for cybercriminals to gain access to user accounts, even if they have obtained the user’s password through a phishing scam or other means. Users should enable MFA on all of their email accounts to protect their personal information and prevent cybercrime.