Securing Federal Systems Integrators with modern authentication

Rising data breach costs and evolving regulations

The 2023 average cost of a data breach was USD 4.45 million, with phishing and stolen or compromised credentials the two most prevalent attack vectors. Despite the growing tide and sophistication of modern cyber attacks and federal regulations such as White House Executive Order 14028 and CMMC 2.0, many federal systems integrators continue to use legacy multifactor authentication (MFA) methods to secure access to critical federal and in-house applications and data.

Not all MFA is created equal

While any form of MFA is better than username and password based authentication, not all forms of MFA are created equal. Mobile-based MFA such as SMS, OTP, and push notifications are highly susceptible to phishing attacks, malware, SIM swapping, attacker-in-the-middle attacks, and account takeovers. Mobile authenticators also don’t offer the best user experience. Users are required to wait for and enter codes, and are dependent on cellular connectivity and battery. They also aren’t suitable for mobile-restricted areas such as manufacturing floors and other areas with heavy machinery.

Yubico offers the YubiKey for modern phishing-resistant multifactor and passwordless authentication, and the YubiHSM for protecting servers, applications, and computing devices.

The YubiKey from Yubico is a FIPS 140-2 validated hardware security key (Certificate #3517) that is purpose-built for high security and designed to stop phishing and account takeover in their tracks, delivering strong authentication at great scale. It’s the only solution proven by independent researchers to stop 100% of account takeovers, including bulk and targeted phishing attacks.

Yubikeys offer modern, phishing-resistant MFA for office workers, privileged users, remote workers, mobile restricted environments, shared workstations and devices, air-gapped networks and SCIFS, and third party entities/supply chain.

YubiKeys integrate seamlessly with existing identity and access management (IAM) and identity provider (IDP) solutions such as Microsoft, Okta, DUO, Ping, and more than 1,000 applications and services out-of-the-box.

A single YubiKey works across legacy and modern systems and applications with multi-protocol support for SmartCard(PIV), TOTP, OpenPGP, FIDO U2F, and FIDO2/ WebAuthn, helping bridge to a modern passwordless future without a rip and replace.

Benefits of the YubiKey

• FIPS 140-2 validated: Meets Authentication Assurance Level 3 requirements (AAL3) of NIST SP800-63B (Certificate #3914)
• Multi-protocol support for SmartCard (PIV), TOTP, FIDO2/ WebAuth, FIDO U2F, and OpenPGP on the same device
• Portable external authenticator works across all computing devices with options to connect via NFC, USB-A, USB-C, and Lightening
• Secure United States manufacturing and supply chain processes, for trustworthy components and delivery
• YubiKeys are water resistant, crush resistant, dustproof and tamper proof, and require no battery or network connectivity

Benefits of the YubiHSM 2

The YubiHSM 2 ensures uncompromised cryptographic hardware security for servers, applications, and computing devices at a fraction of the cost and size of traditional HSMs. It is a FIPS 140-2 validated, Level 3 solution, and is also available as a nonFIPS solution—both with the same capabilities. It can be easily deployed to any USB slot on servers, databases, robotic assembly lines, applications, and IoT devices

• Ultra-portable, innovative ‘nano’ form-factor that allows for flexible deployment
• Cost-effective, enterprise-grade high cryptographic security and operations without the traditional HSM price tag
• Robust hardware protection that is FIPS 140-2 validated, ensuring the highest levels of data protection and compliance demands