Why multi-factor authentication is absolutely essential in 2025

Boris Zhitkov/Gatty Images You are one data breach away from your entire online life being turned upside down. The problem is our reliance on passwords, which are hopelessly fragile ways to secure valuable resources. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by believing that creating a longer, more complex, harder-to-guess password will somehow make you safer online. Also: The best VPN services (and how to choose the right one for you) You can create a password that follows all the rules, one that's so long and complex it takes you five minutes to type, and it will do nothing to protect you if the service where you use that password stores it improperly and then has its server breached. This happens all the time. Even with reasonable policies to ensure that passwords are strong, randomly generated, and not reused, people are still the weakest link in the security chain. Social engineering can convince otherwise intelligent people to enter their credentials on a phishing site ... Read full article.