Two factor authentication (2FA) and three factor authentication (3FA) can drastically reduce the frequency of online identity theft and other online fraud due to the victim's password no longer being sufficient to give an attacker access to their information.
Both Public Key Infrastructures (PKI) and One Time Passwords (OTP) introduce a second factor in to the authentication process. It is the introduction of this second factor that increases the security of the authentication process.
When referring to authentication, a factor is a piece of information used to verify a person's identity for security purposes. The three most commonly recognized factors are:-
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'Something you know', such as a password or PIN
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'Something you have', such as a credit card or hardware token
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'Something you are', such as a fingerprint, a retinal pattern or other biometric
