Telestax Blog

Increase Security with Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Secure online transactions, account sign ins, mobile apps, websites, and more with one-time passwords.

As more individuals rely on web-based services for their work or daily life, web-based services will require additional authentication to validate user identities. The pressure has fallen on communications service providers (CSPs) to help enterprises to strengthen their security and validation procedures.

In this three-part blog series on two-factor authentication (2FA) we will cover the reasons behind 2FA, real-world use cases, as well as technical information on how CSPs can help their enterprise customers to deploy this important functionality – as part of their service offering.

Security on a Global Scale

In the European Union (EU), regulators enforce strong customer authentication (SCA) as part of the second payment services directive (PSD2). Telestax enables secure online transactions, account sign ins, mobile apps, websites, and more by providing two-factor authentication (2FA) with one-time passwords. This creates a strong authentication system in order to enforce security and the liability of users.

For CSPs this means business. There are many ways to secure or validate an online transaction, but as part of this, the web service should be using a separate channel to authenticate the user, one with a unique element such as a personal MSISDN (phone number).

One-Time Password

The most widely implemented 2FA solution for strong authentication is also known as one-time password (OTP). After the user is prompted to insert a personal phone, a unique token is generated and sent on the backend – the user then receives a prompt to insert the token, or entry code for validation.

This is often the case for banking or other online transactions that require retro-compatibility with various communication devices.

In the next part of this three-part 2FA blog series, we will look at how CSPs can leverage the Telestax Restcomm SMS API to help enterprise developers to add security features like one-time password to their applications.

For more information or to request a demonstration, contact sales@telestax.com.

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