Introduction
When it comes to protecting your profiles and credentials, MFA is the best way we currently have to stop hackers from brute-forcing their way into your accounts.
While there are different kinds of MFA, one of most popular choices is to use an authentication app. These useful programs exist on a different device and produce unique, time-sensitive codes to log in after you enter your password.
Why Do We Need Authenticator Apps?
Weak passwords are the cause behind more than 80% of data breaches. People still use passwords like…
- 123456
- password
- admin
- qwerty
- password123
These are still some of the most-used credentials in 2025.
That’s one of many reasons why multi-factor authentication is now accepted or even required on accounts all over the internet.
So why authentication apps specifically? One-time codes sent to your text messages or email can be hacked, thereby circumventing the purpose of MFA. Biometrics (like your face, thumbprint, etc.) and authentication apps are among the safest forms of MFA.
How Do Authentication Apps Work?
Imagine you’re logging into a confidential work account on your computer. After inputting your username and password, a message pops up asking you to input the code sent to your authenticator.
You then open your phone and go to the encrypted application you have dowloaded, and choose the linked account you want to access. The authenticator app will then generate a one-time code. Without the secondary device in hand, hackers wouldn’t be able to verify their attempted access.
That’s what makes authenticator apps such a preferable method of MFA. You need a physical, secondary device with the connected program in order to verify your identity.
Authenticator Apps Are Not Infallible
Unfortunately, threat actors can bypass authenticator apps, although it is not easy and requires sophisticated techniques. Here are some common methods they use:
- Phishing Attacks: Attackers trick users into providing their MFA codes by creating fake login pages that look legitimate.
- Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks: Attackers intercept the communication between the user and the authentication server to capture MFA codes.
- SIM Swapping: Attackers convince mobile carriers to transfer the victim’s phone number to a new SIM card, allowing them to receive MFA codes sent via SMS
- Malware: Malicious software can be used to capture MFA codes directly from the user’s device.
To mitigate these risks, it’s important to use strong, up-to-date security practices, such as using hardware security keys, enabling biometric authentication, and being vigilant about phishing attempts!
Conclusion
Over 100M people worldwide use Microsoft Authenticator. The same amount of users have downloaded Google Authenticator.
MFA is not impenetrable, but it’s the best armor we have available for protecting our accounts and private data. They increase your account security by 99%!
It’s still important to create strong, complex passwords that are more than 12 characters and made up of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Every obstacle you throw up makes your accounts, and data, safer.
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