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  6. How Can 2FA Help You? A Look At The Colonial Pipeline Attack

How Can 2FA Help You? A Look At The Colonial Pipeline Attack

Posted on July 8, 2021 by Information Security
Information Security

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In April 2021, Colonial Pipeline, which is a large US energy company, had an account compromised by hackers after account credentials were leaked on the dark web. The hackers were able to access the Colonial Pipeline network through a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which allowed employees to make changes remotely. Even though the password was compromised, there were effective methods that Colonial Pipeline could have still used to prevent the VPN from being accessed, with Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) being the most effective.  Enabling 2FA on an account requires a user to enter a 2nd form of authentication in order to access that account, and 2FA on the compromised account could have prevented the hack.  2FA is required on all USA email accounts, and step-by-step instructions to implement it can be found under the “How-To Documents” tab on the left-hand side of this page.  To learn more about the Colonial Pipeline compromise, click here to read full article.

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