Is MFA required for employees/contractors to access production systems and corporate resources?
Explanation & Context
Explanation of the Question:
This question is asking whether your organization enforces the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for employees and contractors when they access production systems and corporate resources. MFA is a security measure that requires users to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to a resource such as an application, online account, or a VPN. The purpose of this requirement is to add an extra layer of security beyond just a username and password, making it significantly harder for unauthorized users to gain access even if they have obtained someone's credentials.
Why It Matters:
Enabling MFA helps protect against various types of attacks, including phishing, where attackers might steal passwords. With MFA in place, even if an attacker gets a user's password, they would still need the additional factor (like a code sent to the user's phone) to gain access. This greatly reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data. For production systems and corporate resources, which often contain critical and sensitive information, ensuring that MFA is required is a fundamental security practice.
Example of Evidence:
To demonstrate that MFA is required, you might provide documentation or configuration settings from your authentication system showing that MFA is enforced for all users accessing production systems. Additionally, you could show logs or reports indicating that users are required to complete MFA challenges when they log in, and any exceptions or failures to comply are promptly addressed.
Example Responses
Example Response 1
Our organization enforces the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all employees and contractors when accessing production systems and corporate resources hosted on Vercel. This policy is implemented through our identity provider, which requires users to authenticate using a combination of their password and a time-based one-time password (TOTP) generated by an authenticator app.
Example Response 2
We require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all employees and contractors accessing our production systems and corporate resources hosted on AWS. This requirement is enforced through our centralized identity and access management system, which integrates with AWS IAM to ensure that MFA is mandatory for any access to our AWS environment, including via the AWS Management Console and API.
Example Response 3
While our organization primarily operates on-premises software solutions, we do not enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for accessing these systems. Our security posture relies on network segmentation, regular security audits, and strict access control policies to protect our on-premises resources. However, for any cloud-based services we utilize, MFA is required as an additional layer of security.

