• The most secure passkey for Financial Services

    Be cyber resilient and stop fraud with simple, secure authentication for employees and customers

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    Home » Industries » Secure financial organizations with phishing-resistant MFA

    Legacy mobile-based authenticators such as SMS, OTP and push notification apps are common across the financial services sector, but these are highly susceptible to modern cyber threats. Traditional MFA only verifies something the user has—but attackers now easily exploit human behavior and social engineering to trick users into handing over access.

    Common legacy MFA vulnerabilities:

    • Phishable OTP codes via SMS or apps
    • Push fatigue attacks (approve/deny prompts)
    • Session hijacking and man-in-the-middle exploits

    For financial services, where regulatory scrutiny and customer trust are paramount, these weaknesses are unacceptable. If your MFA can be phished, your business is at risk.

    “With today’s security threats, it’s time to take a closer look at YubiKeys and why they’re becoming the gold standard for account authentication. SMS-based two-factor authentication is vulnerable to SIM-swapping, phishing, and interception. Hardware security keys like YubiKey offer a much more secure and reliable way to protect your accounts from cybercriminals.”

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    Cyber attacks are evolving. So should your MFA

    Legacy MFA is no match for phishing attacks that use GenAI to create highly personalized and realistic emails, SMS messages, phone communication, or social media outreach. In advanced cases, AI can also be used to automate the real-time communication used in phishing attacks, which makes it extremely easy for humans to be fooled.

    Hardware passkeys deliver the highest level of protection against phishing, credential theft, and account takeovers, even those driven by GenAI, helping you stop cyber attacks, eliminate fraud and keep your employees and customers happy.

    “We’re going down the same path as the most advanced organizations in the world. And we’re all rolling out YubiKeys.”

    Mike SchwerminCIO, Afni
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    YubiKeys: Modern passwordless security built for financial services

    Hardware passkeys such as the YubiKey deliver the strongest defense against modern phishing threats, offering phishing-resistant multi-factor and passwordless authentication. Based on open standards like FIDO2 and WebAuthn, YubiKeys use cryptographic authentication to verify users and ensure that credentials cannot be reused or intercepted. YubiKeys are also multi-protocol, helping you bridge to a passwordless future when your business is ready.

    Key benefits of the YubiKey:

    • Phishing-resistant: Keys only work with the legitimate website or app—no exceptions.
    • Zero shared secrets: Eliminates OTPs, SMS, or stored credentials.
    • Fast and user-friendly: Tap to authenticate—no codes to type or apps to open, and easily portable across devices.
    • Compliance-ready: Aligns with NIST SP 800-63B and evolving cybersecurity mandates.

    A Secure Passwordless Future for Financial Services

    Read our white paper to learn how financial services can defeat AI cyber threats with proactive, passwordless security.

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    Every user—protected. Every customer—secured.

    Every user—whether inside your organization or beyond it—can be a potential entry point for cyber threats. From office workers to call centers and beyond, Yubico ensures comprehensive protection across your entire digital ecosystem, delivering wall-to-wall coverage that strengthens your security posture and drives true cyber resiliency.

    We also understand that your customers are your most valuable asset—and with account takeovers on the rise, the financial and reputational risks have never been higher. That’s why many financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and KeyBank, choose to integrate support for YubiKeys directly into digital and mobile banking experiences. If they can do it, so can you! Offer your retail and commercial clients strong, frictionless authentication that sets your institution apart and keeps fraud at bay.

    Unlock Secure Banking

    Read our free brochure to learn the six best practices to protect customers from banking scams.

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    Simple deployment. Scalable security

    The path to modern passwordless authentication doesn’t have to be complex. YubiKeys work across all major platforms and identity providers, and we simplify the process with services that streamline procurement, global delivery—even to residential addresses—and seamless pre-enrollment of YubiKeys for end users. From purchase to rollout, you get a complete solution that makes strong security easy to deploy at scale.

    Best practices to get started with phishing-resistant MFA at scale

    Learn the six deployment best practices that can help your organization accelerate adoption of modern, phishing-resistant MFA at scale using the YubiKey.

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    Ready to get started?

    We’re here to help! Talk to our experts on how you can secure access for every employee, partner, and client—without compromise, with Yubico as a Service, designed for businesses with 500+ employees seeking scalable authentication solutions.

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