Yubico is once again emphasizing the importance of strong digital security practices, and multi-factor authentication in particular. In a new post on the Yubico blog, the company notes that many people are now working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which means that an even greater number of interactions are now taking place exclusively online.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can mitigate the risk of account takeover across those digital channels. In fact, the vast majority (82 percent) of attendees at the 2019 Black Hat USA conference identified MFA as the most effective tool for protecting enterprise data, and a recent Google study found that security keys (including YubiKeys) are extremely good at thwarting targeted attacks.

With that in mind, Yubico indicated that it will continue to work with other organizations to improve security standards like FIDO U2F, FIDO2, and WebAuthn. It will also donate free YubiKeys to non-profit organizations that are trying to cultivate a safe and open internet.

Yubico has previously warned that the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to an increase in social engineering attacks as workplaces struggle to transition to a remote work environment. That prospect is concerning in light of Yubico’s latest report on Password and Authentication Behaviors, which found that many employees still rely on outdated (and vulnerable) passwords for enterprise security.