I was visiting a family member at the hospital the other day, and an attendant asked me to produce my vax passport and a driver’s license.
Multi-factor identification is everywhere! I thought.
Well, some great news from Microsoft: the mother ship is preparing to update its Outlook app with multi-factor identification (MFA) for many 365 business users.
By now you know that MFA is one of the first lines of defence against those ne’re do wells who want to steal anything they can get their grubby paws on. For those of you new to it, MFA is when a website or app wants to send you a one-time code when you log in. It can be a text, email, phone call.
You may also be familiar with authenticator apps like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or 2FAS. They’re quite effective and quick.
Of course, the quickest and most secure is using biometric ID (fingerprint or face ID).
No matter the speed of authentication, the protection MFA provides is far easier than the hassle of a bot hacking an account that doesn’t use it.
Of course, in the fast-paced digital world, those extra few seconds count. That’s why Microsoft is trying to simplify the process with Authenticator Lite.
Rollout has not been completed across Outlook apps, but you should be prompted if it has been.
We’ve been preaching MFA to our small- and medium-sized business clients for a long time, so it’s great to see that Microsoft is streamlining the practice to make it more widely used. It really is one of the best ways to defend your business against cybercriminals.
We don’t just preach MFA, we practice it. If you’d like us to help your business implement this important step or show you how to get the most out of Microsoft 365, contact us. We’d be happy to support.
Ian Robertson: Jun 8, 2023
