The Superiority of Modern Single Device MFA

TLDR; The debate between single device and multi-device MFA is explored, with modern single device MFA being shown to provide better security and usability.

🔒 Push Bombing Attacks

Push bombing attacks involve overwhelming a user's device with a flood of push notifications, highlighting the issue of having multiple devices involved in MFA.

This illustrates how multiple devices are not necessarily better for security, as stated by the speaker: 'This is a classic example of an issue of having multiple devices involved in MFA, how that's not necessarily better.'

The example of receiving multiple text messages in a row is used to demonstrate how an overload of notifications can be annoying, emphasizing the drawbacks of this approach.

🛡️ Effectiveness of Two-Device MFA

Traditional two-device MFA solutions like SMS, OTP, and push notifications have failed to prevent remote phishing attacks and provide strong phishing resistance.

The speaker explains that having two mechanisms is better than one, but without strong phishing resistance, traditional two-device MFA solutions pose an existential risk since they fail to fully prevent remote exploitation.

It's highlighted that the second device in traditional MFA only provides the possession factor and doesn't make any assertion on the device gaining access, leading to increased difficulty for legitimate users and only marginal difficulty for attackers.

🤖 Modern Single Device MFA

Modern single device MFA solutions provide a better user experience by streamlining the authentication process, leading to higher user adoption, less friction, and happier users.

It's emphasized that transitioning from a second device MFA to a single device MFA does not mean foregoing security, as modern passwordless single device MFA fundamentally prevents phishing attacks and makes traditional commodity attacks useless for attackers to attempt.

When device posture is added to the mix, devices attempting to log in are analyzed for vulnerabilities, configurations, and the presence of security tools, ensuring secure access.

🔐 Advantages of Single Device MFA

A modern single device MFA solution is shown to beat out traditional two-device MFA on both usability and security, providing architectural advantages like being phishing resistant, more understandable for users, and cost-efficient.

The speaker concludes that single device MFA has architectural advantages, is easier for users to understand and use, and is cost-efficient, saving on maintenance and other associated costs.