The confidentiality of your data is critical to your membership organization. Easily add a layer of protection with multi-factor authentication.
In today's digital world, our online activities are like navigating through various geographies. Some are safe and peaceful; some are dangerous and packed with hidden threats. Whether we're accessing emails, social media, or conducting financial transactions, the need for security has never been more pressing. Enter Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), a simple yet powerful tool designed to add an extra layer of protection to your online journeys.
Unless you’re an IT professional, you may not know what “MFA” is or how it works — but I’ll bet you see it nearly every day. This protection has become even more critical in areas we previously thought were perfectly safe and peaceful. Let’s dig in.
As we travel through our various digital venues, the age-old practice of securing our online presence with a single key — our password — no longer seems sufficient. Increasingly sophisticated cyber threats drive the need for more robust defense mechanisms. More protections clearly are required and MFA has established itself as the next step.
Picture MFA as a dynamic duo working in tandem to ensure the security of your online identity:
Let’s say you want to sign into your Amazon account. You probably enter your username as well as a password. Then, Amazon sends you a text with a 6-digit code you have to enter to access your account. This is MFA.
Implementing MFA is not a task reserved for the tech-savvy elite. It's a simple and accessible feature for everyone. Just like adjusting your privacy preferences, enabling MFA is often found in the security settings of your online accounts. Next steps are just as straightforward, simply engage with the activation process, which may involve linking your mobile device, receiving a text code, or setting up an authentication app. It's a straightforward process guided by the platform's prompts.
With MFA in place, you can breathe easy knowing that even if someone gets ahold of your password, they won't be able to proceed without the additional verification step. It's like having a second pair of eyes ensuring that only you have access to your personal data. For the strongest authenticator app-based MFA solution, we recommend using Microsoft’s Authenticator app. Microsoft Authenticator is currently the only app that will sense suspicious logins or login attempts from unconventional sources, and then, by policy, will suppress notifications to you to complete such risky authentications.
Since it makes so much sense to leverage MFA within all your other online accounts, then why not in your association software? We strongly encourage enabling MFA for all your staff users because of the extent of access they have to sensitive member data within your database. Compromise of staff user account credentials could result in near-catastrophic outcomes and liabilities for your organization. Your members rely on you to keep their data safe.
The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data are critical to your operations. Your association software needs a multi-layered approach to ensure its data protection. You’ll want to ensure your provider regularly monitors/enhances their policies and procedures to adhere to the most rigorous industry standards. Some of these measures could include:
For example: In addition to the secure practices used to develop, create, and maintain iMIS, ASI maintains many operational layers of protection including:
ASI has achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Certification and is GDPR-compliant and PCI-validated. This is the highest standard for information security and, to our knowledge, iMIS is the only solution in the association industry to achieve this distinction.
Want to learn more about data security? Schedule a demo of the iMIS Engagement Management System to see exactly how we can help you keep your member data secure.
By turning its users into Learning Organizations, modern association software creates a continuous performance improvement machine.
Chairman & CEO of ASI Bob Alves and President & CTO Don Robertson have written an important new update to their 2015 book, The Association Exec's...
As a learning organization, you learn from every member interaction and act on these insights to drive member retention and engagement.