MFA & Office 365

Over the past month, we’ve been involved in lots of support calls, an office move involving cabling and moving the IT kit, and setting up new laptops for another client. 

Another area of focus has been turning on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Office365 email accounts. MFA allows for more secure email accounts and Office365 access. 

For one client, this has involved obtaining each staff member’s mobile number and adding them to the admin section of the client’s Office365 account.  We then provided new passwords to the staff.  This additional security enables the user to approve the sign-in to their account using their mobile device.  The approval is required each time the user signs into their Office365 service, which would include email and Teams, for example. 

While these are part of the same account, they are two separate sign-in processes so approval is required for each.  Once the user is signed in, approval is not required again until they sign out of the account.  This is just another means to stop scammers from accessing email accounts and important information.  Even if a scammer obtained the password, they would need the mobile device to approve the login.

Many businesses (and individuals) are now turning to MFA in an attempt to stop scammers.  While it’s not entirely foolproof, it does hinder unauthorised access to accounts. 

If you’re wanting to secure your data, get in contact to discuss MFA for your business.  We operate in the Gatwick, Crawley, and West Sussex region and are here to help.