Passwords alone may not be enough to secure your system. For extra security, you would use multifactor authentication (MFA). Multifactor authentication is a combination of two or more of the items below:
- Something you know (password, pin)
- Something you have (smart card, hardware token, mobile phone, etc.)
- Something you are (biometrics)
- Somewhere you are
- Something you do (signature)
An example of MFA would be scanning your fingerprint (something you are) in addition to providing a password (something you know) in order to gain access.
MFA can be expensive. For example, if you are using hardware tokens, you’ll need to pay for these and the service. You can also choose the cheaper route of software tokens (such as free smartphone applications that are random number generators that act as your code to input into the MFA).