Whiteboard Wednesday – Adaptive Multi-factor Authentication: How Does it Work?

On this week’s edition of Whiteboard Wednesday, MRI Software’s own Jake Melchert continues his series on Single-Sign on. Jake takes a deep dive into Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication – how it works and scenarios where it would not allow a user access. Join us each Wednesday for a new Whiteboard Wednesday video.

Video Transcription

Jake Melchert: Hi everyone. Jake Melchert here from MRI software. On previous editions, we talked about single sign-on as well as Multi-Factor Authentication. This week’s episode we’re going to talk about another MFA technique called Adaptive MFA. For that, I’m going to walk you through Jane’s typical workday.

Jane signs into her computer which is the same one that she uses every single day as well as from the same geographical location. She also does that usually in the same time. For that, she’s able to bypass MFA because the SSO system recognizes that this is, in fact, Jane and she’s able to log in to the application.

Now, if somebody got a hold of Jane’s credentials chances are they’re not using it from the same computer that she’s doing, they’re also not using it from the same geographical location, maybe not around the same time either. Since the SSO system recognizes that there’s a good chance that this isn’t Jane, she’s going to be prompted with the MFA questions that we listed before. This restricts that person from using the application, they’re no longer allowed to log into it with Jane’s credentials.

That’s your Whiteboard Wednesday for this week. Thank you very much.