Secure your Office 365 email with multi-factor authentication

You can reach your Office 365 email from anywhere. Adding Microsoft's 2FA helps prevent others from doing so too.

Web mail is a great tool that allows you to access your email from anywhere. This makes it easier for unauthorised access too, so ensure you have a strong password and add two-factor authentication as well.

"An unauthorised user only needs your email address and password to gain access," says Chris Joberns, managing director at Strident. "As a natural part of doing business, users freely give their email address out and if your password is easy to guess then someone has access to your email."

Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, adds another layer of security and Office 365 users can add this to their web mail to help prevent unauthorised access. "It's easy to set up and uses an app on your smartphone to generate a random and frequently changing code. Your password and this time-sensitive code are then required to access your web mail, so a hacker would need access to your phone as well," explains Chris.

Adding 2FA keeps your web mail safe and still allows you to use your dedicated mail apps on your devices. With 2FA enabled, these apps may request a security code every 30 days or you can set separate app-specific passwords for your devices.

To find out more about setting up 2FA on your Office 365 account, contact the Strident Helpdesk. If you're not a Strident customer, contact Chris on 01473 835 280 to find out about our professional IT support services.