Microsoft has long viewed multi-factor authentication as being significant. In actuality, MFA is also offered for Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365. Microsoft even went so far as to claim that implementing multi-factor authentication can shield your accounts from 99.9% of attacks!
Despite how intriguing this number may be, it does not provide the complete picture. Why is it so crucial to enable multi-factor authentication? This manual will assist you in resolving this dilemma.
Why Is Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication So Important?
As was already noted, Microsoft thinks MFA is crucial. They are even aware that it can thwart the majority of network attacks. Additionally, it is far more difficult to hack accounts protected by MFA. Therefore, it's crucial to turn on multi-factor authentication. Otherwise, attackers will view you as a prime target.
Okta Supports This Claim
A recent Okta study provided support for this hypothesis. Across all industries, hackers target accounts with Microsoft Legacy Authentication on average 53 times more frequently, according to the company's Businesses at Work Report. The conclusions of Microsoft were substantially supported by the same report. When a company forbids traditional authentication, "the ratio of threats to authentications lowers by 90-99%," the paper claims.
But this analysis also revealed something intriguing and counterintuitive. MFA decreased authentication-related hazards to various degrees across businesses. In general, the technology sector benefited the most, with a threat reduction ratio of 99.6%. Threat reduction ratios of greater than 96% were achieved in all of the tested industries. All but one, the insurance sector, which stands out as an exception. In actuality, it only effectively reduced threats by 89.6%.
But even with that roughly 90% reduction, it's still a really big deal. Even though the ratio isn't as as striking as that of other industries, it's still something to take into account.
Therefore, it is obvious that MFA is your entry point for reducing the possibility of attacks on your accounts. Let's examine the procedures needed to accomplish this.
Multi-Factor Authentication: How to Turn It On
In Microsoft 365, setting multi-factor authentication is typically an easy process. You might, however, be utilizing legacy multi-factor authentication (per user). Then you ought to turn it off. You can then enable multi-factor authentication after that.
Follow these seven steps to activate modern multi-factor authentication:
🔹Open the Microsoft 365 Admin Center after logging into Microsoft 365 as a Global Administrator.
🔹 After selecting Add Admin Centers, select the Azure Active Directory Admin Center option.
🔹 Decide to select the Azure Active Directory tab.
🔹 Click Properties
🔹 Press the Manage Security Defaults link
🔹 Click Yes to enable security defaults
🔹 Click Save
Conclusion
In conclusion, Microsoft has long actively urged its users to enable multi-factor authentication. But it's only natural to question whether the promised security advantages would actually manifest themselves.
The Okta analysis, however, appears to support what Microsoft has been stating the entire time. All of this serves to emphasize that using MFA is among the most crucial steps you can take to safeguard your accounts.
