Security should always be at the forefront of your mind when it comes to your computer and online identity. After many companies and organizations have been exposed as being vulnerable, more and more businesses are starting to invest increased amounts of money into their network security. How can you help yourself? Simple, and often free is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Many applications are making this technology available to its users, and one of them is Office 365.
MFA helps secure user sign-ins for cloud services beyond just a single password. With MFA for Office 365, users are required to acknowledge a phone call, text message, or app notification on their smart phones after correctly entering their passwords. They can sign in only after this second authentication factor has been satisfied.
Here’s how to set up MFA on your Office 365 account, and the accounts associated with your company.
The first thing you will want to do is sign into the Office 365 Admin center, expand the USERS tab and then select Active Users.
At the top of the page, select the Set up link, located to the right of Set Multi-factor authentication requirements.
You will now see a display of all the usernames attached to this Office 365 account. Select the box to the left of the user that you want to apply multi-factor authentication settings to. With your desired account selected, you will next go to the information box displayed to the right of the user and select the Enable link (located under quick steps).
After selecting Enable, a box will open titled, About enabling multi-factor auth. Be sure to check out the links if you want more information about using multi-factor authentication. When you’re ready, go ahead and click enable multi-factor auth.
Click close after Office 365 informs you that the new settings have been applied. This completes the administrative side.
The next time the selected users log in to their Office 365 account, they will login as usual, however the user will be notified that their admin requires them to set up their account for additional security verification.
The user will be required to select which MFA method they prefer, like their mobile phone number, so they can receive a call or SMS messages from Microsoft. After entering the preferred phone number, click Contact Me.
Next, Microsoft will contact your phone with a unique code that you will enter in order to verify the number. Depending on if you’re using a browser-based MFA setup, you may be asked to change your password too.
After creating and implementing a new password, multi-factor authentication will be set up for all the Office 365 accounts that you desire to have an extra layer of protection for.
To learn more about how to setup multi-factor authentication for your other online accounts, as well as how to implement additional enterprise-level security solutions for your company’s network, please cntact M-Squared Networks at 714.983-7646.
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