Using Two Factor Authentication with MS Office 365 Business Edition
Using Two Factor Authentication with MS Office 365 Business Edition
I’ve had the pleasure of co-presenting with Brian Edelman, the President of Financial Computer, Inc. on numerous occasions over the last several years. Recently, as Brian and I were preparing a presentation, the subject of MS Office 365 for Business two-factor authentication came up. Brian mentioned that Microsoft offered a number of two factor authentication methods, but that this function was not well known. I certainly was not aware of this functionality myself!
It turns out, however, that the method of enabling two-factor authentication is not well documented. Our suspicion was that few if any advisors were using two-factor authentication because its existence was not well known. If the sample of advisors we talked to at a recent conference was any indication, our suspicion was well founded. Almost nobody was using two-factor authentication with MS 365 for Business.
Clearly, both Brian and I feel it is beneficial for advisors to turn on two-factor authentication if they use MS Office 365, but some guidance is required. Brian volunteered to put together a clear, concise tutorial on how to use a phone-based app, the Microsoft Authenticator, to authenticate. We believe this is the easiest and least intrusive method. Here’s how it works: Once you attempt to log on to MS Office 365, a pop up screen appears on your phone. It simply asks you to approve or disapprove the log in. If you approve, you are in. If you disapprove, the system stays locked down.
For a full tutorial on enabling two-factor authentication, click here: TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION TUTORIAL
