Nearly every breached Microsoft account has one thing in common – they don’t have a multi-factor authentication solution enabled. Boston HelpDesk will be reaching out to clients soon to discuss the importance of MFA and develop a plan to implement this for your organization if it is not already in place.
At the latest RSA security conference, Microsoft engineers told attendees that 99.9% of the accounts that are compromised each month don’t have multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution enabled. That’s why you need to disable legacy authentication protocols and update to one that supports MFA. Microsoft notes that doing has resulted in a 67% reduction in breaches. They also provide a built-in MFA feature, called Microsoft Authenticator.
When you log in to an account that has MFA enabled, in addition to entering your password, you must either enter in an added generated code, or authorize login with a “push” request to a secondary device.
In the event your password is compromised, your account can remain secure as the cybercriminal is unable to authenticate the secondary requirement.
There is a range of options for generating the MFA codes:
Receiving a text message
Using a dedicated authenticator application
Possessing a physical device on which you must push a button to verify that you are the authorized user of that account
The protection that MFA adds allows you use your passwords for a longer length of time between password resets, and in the event that your service provider is compromised and your email and password end up in an open database on the open web, you will have time to change your password before your individual account is compromised.
If you do not have MFA set up and would like to set it up immediately, please reach out to Boston HelpDesk to discuss a timeline. Otherwise will be in contact with you in the next few weeks to discuss rolling out MFA for your organization.