In this rapidly growing digital world, data security is one of the biggest concerns for individuals and organizations. It’s important to protect your critical data against potential security risks such as data breaches, phishing attacks, and unauthorized access. So, it is important to implement advanced security features like multi-factor authentication instead of using a single-factor authentication that requires only username and password for authentication purposes. Microsoft 365, provides a suite of productivity tools that organizations widely use. It offers robust security features like multi-factor authentication(MFA). Enabling MFA in Microsoft 365 enhances the security of an organization's data and protects against different kinds of cyberattacks. In this article, we will see how to set up multi-factor authentication in Microsoft 365.
What is Multi-Factor Authentication(MFA)?
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a multi-step account login process in which users are required to enter various information rather than just a password to authenticate themselves to log in to an account. For example, along with the password, users might be asked to enter a code sent to their email, answer a question, or do biometric verification such as scanning(fingerprints or iris scanner). It adds an extra layer of security, making it difficult for unauthorized users or attackers to get access to an account.
Reasons to Use Multi-Factor Authentication in Microsoft 365
Security- MFA adds an extra layer of security to an account by using multiple verification methods to authenticate the users. It gets difficult for unauthorized users to gain access to an account easily. Using only a password to protect your account is not enough to protect crucial data against modern cyberattacks. According to Microsoft enabling MFA can block 99.9% account compromising attacks.
Flexibility- Multi-factor authentication is easy to implement and user-friendly, like those offered by Microsoft 365, are designed to be user-friendly and easy to implement. Administrators can easily enable MFA and can set up the authentication methods for the users. It provides flexibility by offering multiple verification methods like a code sent to email, phone, and text messages, and biometrics like facial recognition, fingerprints, etc.