Why you should consider Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to protect your Intellectual Property

Are you still using applications that do not require multi-factor authentication (MFA)? Probably you are, as most of us rightly dislike security tokens, dongles and digi-passes. Yet more and more business partners and apps are imposing the use of at least a second factor before they let you in. But why making it so hard? At Limecraft, we think there is no reason why MFA should not be user-friendly.

Most of us do it several times a day: pull out a token device, start up yet another session with Itsme, Trustbuilder or Google Authenticator, or key in a 6-digit code received in a text message. Two-step authentication and MFA are definitely on the rise.

What is Multi-Factor Authentication?

How can you be sure someone is who he claims to be? By asking for proof. Passwords are easily compromised and no longer suffice. Rather than just asking for a username and password, MFA requires one or more additional verification factors such as fingerprints or a hardware token. It decreases the likelihood of unauthorised access to your content.

Six good reasons why you should use MFA to protect your Intellectual Property

Protection of your intellectual Property: When a screenplay, original score, or confidential communication is leaked, not only does this ruin outcomes for countless fans, but also filmmakers’ intellectual property– which is either devalued or lost altogether, along with months or years that went into developing it.

The use of weak passwords: When having to come up with a password, all too often we take the path of least resistance and go for a birth date, names of pets, and street addresses. For several consecutive years, the password 123456 has been top of the list of most commonly used passwords. Did you know that most of the 50 most commonly used passwords can all be cracked in under a second?

Passwords no longer suffice: hackers have increasingly become more sophisticated in getting a hold of combinations of usernames and passwords. Phishing emails, hacks into databases,… With on average one hacker attack every 39 seconds, no wonder hundreds of thousands of web logins get stolen or compromised every day, making it easy for attackers to access sensitive data. These statistics mean it is no longer a question of IF your credentials will fall into the wrong hands, but WHEN. It’s always worthwhile checking if your credentials are listed on Have I been pwned.

CDSA, TPN or DPP Committed to Security Certification: Because your intellectual property is valuable and because simple password protection is insufficient, all major studios, co-producers and distributors will impose a minimum level of security-related best practices. If you want to engage with them, you will be asked to be CDSA (Content Delivery & Security Assessment), TPN (Trusted Partner Network), or DPP Committed to Security certified, and the use of MFA is often part of the drill.

Legitimate activity reports: without MFA, people can share user names and passwords too easily. While it may feel more convenient for a user to share their identity rather than to ask their account manager to set up another user, it creates a situation whereby you can’t trust log files and activity reports anymore. Doing so, it may become increasingly difficult to find out who accessed, uploaded, modified, or deleted media in your production. Using MFA, the identity of the user is guaranteed and your activity reports will be representative and accurate.

GPDR compliancy: Besides requiring organisations to be transparent to customers on the data they are storing about them, GDPR also requires them to protect these data from unauthorised access. Multi-factor authentication is a good protective measure to stop data from being compromised, thus ensuring proper protection of customer data.

How to make MFA user-friendly

MFA is a strong, proven security measure against all types of attacks and breaches: phishing, identity stealing, Man-in-the-Middle attacks, brute force attacks,… All of these can be prevented by using multi-factor authentication.

Proving that two-factor or multi-factor authentication is necessary and functional may be easy, but that still doesn’t make it convenient for the user. Nor some of the MFA techniques that are frequently being used, are very secure either. Just think of one-time passwords being intercepted, allowing attackers to gain access to applications or websites.

To avoid you having to take care of a separate piece of hardware or install yet another app on your smartphone, Limecraft uses Google Authenticator. It is an app which can be easily downloaded and installed on a smartphone, it is solid, and it brings you on par with security standards.

“What really like about using Limecraft as our main workspace, is the optimal balance of security and user-friendliness of the solution, and the ability to seamlessly integrate it as part of our production workflow,” says Talle Leyssens, CTO at Warner Brothers Int. Television Production Belgium. As producers of premium content, they enforced the use Limecraft Multi-Factor across the organisation.

💡 Check out how convenient it is to secure your account and log in, using Limecraft Multi-Factor Authentication.

Limecraft MFA in action

MFA does not need to kill employee experience. On the contrary, using the right tool to secure data and applications can increase customer experience. Interested in finding out more? Then request your personalised demo.