Office 365: Two-Factor Authentication
SECURE YOUR OFFICE 365 ACCOUNT!
Following on from our previous post, discussing a recently discovered technique hackers have adopted in order to silently steal personal information by inserting hidden forwarding rules into users email accounts; we felt it would be beneficial to Office 365 users for us to talk about a very simple, yet highly effective method of securing their accounts, known as Two-Factor authentication, or “2FA” for short!
“WHAT IS TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION?”
Naturally, trying to gain access via two locked doors is more complicated than one and this is essentially the premise of two-factor authentication.
Two-Factor Authentication is the addition of a second layer of security to protect an account or system. Users must go through two layers or stages of security before being granted access to an account or system.
2FA increases the safety of online accounts by requiring two types of validation from the user, such as a username, password, email account or PIN, before they can log in.
The first factor requires the user to enter their username and password; and the second factor is the additional stage of receiving a one-off PIN.
“HOW CAN I APPLY TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION TO MY OFFICE 365 ACCOUNT?”
Office 365 users will already be aware they are required to enter their username and password before logging into their account, however, they may not know they can also adopt two-factor authentication by requesting a one-off PIN to be sent to themselves via SMS, specialised Apps, or an alternative email address.
“HOW WILL THIS HELP ME SECURE MY OFFICE 365 ACCOUNT?”
Hackers are always thinking up ingenious ways to steal credentials and access your personal accounts; however, by applying two-factor authentication, any attempted log in with a new device will require verification via a PIN that is sent to you by either text or an alternative email, meaning you can confirm whether the attempt has been made by yourself or by suspected hackers, and block or allow access.
“CAN I SECURE MY ACCOUNT ANY FURTHER?”
The biggest security risk to any account is human error, so as we mentioned in our previous post, we strongly recommend users steer-clear from entering both their email address and it’s password onto other websites, and if they are concerned they may have already done this, they should carry out a proactive audit of their accounts immediately.
In addition, you do not only have to stop at Two-Factor Verification! You can always adopt Multi-Factor Authentication, by adding further obstacles to make it trickier for hackers to gain access!
If you would like to find out more about Two-Factor Verification, or Multi-Factor Verification, speak to one of our specialists on:
