{"id":6181,"date":"2014-02-10T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/?p=6181"},"modified":"2024-08-09T16:38:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T23:38:21","slug":"multi-factor-authentication-for-office-365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2014\/02\/10\/multi-factor-authentication-for-office-365\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Editor\u2019s Note: <\/strong>The Office 2013 Windows client update that is mentioned in this post has updated information.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul Andrew is a technical product manager on the Office 365 team working on identity.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we\u2019re adding Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365 to Office 365 Midsize Business, Enterprise plans, Academic plans, Nonprofit plans, and standalone Office 365 plans, including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. This will allow organizations with these subscriptions to enable multi-factor authentication for their Office 365 users without requiring any additional purchase or subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multi-factor authentication increases the security of user logins for cloud services above and beyond just a password. With Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365, users are required to acknowledge a phone call, text message, or an app notification on their smartphone after correctly entering their password. Only after this second authentication factor has been satisfied can a user sign in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multi-factor authentication has been available for Office 365 administrative roles since June 2013, and today we\u2019re extending this capability to any Office 365 user. We\u2019re also enhancing the capabilities that have been available since June. We\u2019re adding App Passwords for users so they can authenticate from Office desktop applications as these are not yet updated to enable multi-factor authentication. And we\u2019re enabling users who are authenticated from a federated on-premises directory to be enabled for multi-factor authentication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This addition of multi-factor authentication is part of our ongoing effort to enhance security for Office 365, and we\u2019re already working on Office desktop application improvements to Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365, which we\u2019ll introduce later in this post. Office 365 offers many robust built-in security features for all customers and also optional controls that enable subscribers to customize their security preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s take a look at how Office 365 customers can take advantage of multi-factor authentication and configure it, including using App Passwords for Office desktop applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n