2FA Archives - Quo Vadis, Inc.

18 Dec 2019

2FA, News, Passwords, Security Mary Gordon 0 comment

2020 Changes

We have some exciting changes coming up at the turn of the new year!

Take control of your own password resets for Office 365, with the self-service option. If you are a Network Care client, you’ll be prompted over the next two weeks to provide an off-domain address and mobile number to verify your identity. No more calling to get a reset!

Microsoft will be mandating 2FA (two-factor authentication) soon, so we’re helping to prepare you for it now. All you need is a mobile number to help authenticate your login when you access your mail. Many of you are doing this already, but for those of you who aren’t, you’ll be prompted over the next two weeks to provide your mobile number. Once you enable 2FA, your password will never expire!

We will be enabling 2FA for all our Network Care clients who use Office 365 in the first quarter of 2020. Prior to this, we will be sending you an email with clear instructions (and pictures!) to help you. Don’t worry, our engineers are here every step of the way to assist with this.

Call your Engineer directly! We’ve enhanced our phone system so you can get to the Engineer working on your request directly, without having to speak to an Operator or wait in the Engineer’s queue. Let us know how you like it.

01 Apr 2019

2FA, Passwords, recovery, Security Mary Gordon 0 comment

Password Reset

By now you should have heard about two-factor or multi-factor authentication. Your bank probably uses it to allow access to your accounts. Microsoft offers it for account access with two-factor authentication FOR FREE!

If you enable 2FA, we set your email password to NEVER expire. Our clients LOVE THIS. Just call the Help Desk when you have 5 minutes and your mobile phone is available and unused. If you install the Microsoft Authenticator app from your mobile App store beforehand, the process is that much quicker.

If you DON’T use 2FA, eventually, you’ll need to reset your password. If it expires, you’ll need to call the Help Desk for assistance in getting it reset, which brings us to the purpose of this update.

For your protection, we are implementing stronger security to validate password reset requests. If you are using 2FA, you can ignore the rest of this article.

Social engineering is one of the most serious threats in today’s world. I am concerned that some nefarious hacker will attempt to fake-out our Engineers in order to reset your email password. Beginning in April 2019, we will begin using Helpdesk Authentication through Duo. If you have Duo already, you’re all set.

For those clients who have never used Duo we will provide free authentication for password verification. Call the Help Desk to get it setup before your password needs to be reset. For those who have, we encourage you to add your other team members.

Effective April 2019, users requiring a password reset that do not use Duo will need to call from their office phone. Otherwise we plan on calling the main office or use other verification methods before performing a password reset.

05 Jun 2018

2FA, Uncategorized Joseph Squicciarini 0 comment

Smart, but not human.

Much has been made about these “listening” speakers. Google, Amazon, Apple, Sonos, and the list keeps growing.

Hey Siri, play the soundtrack from Hunt for Red October.

Auto makers are hurriedly working on self-driving cars. My Tesla does some assisted-steering and traffic-aware cruise control. Firearm makers have toyed with smart guns, using fingerprint readers, retina scans, RFID chips, and the like. I can turn on the lights in the home from my iPhone, and I get a text when there’s motion in The Lab when I’m not there.

I have become convinced that self-driving cars cannot possibly work until ALL the cars are self-driving. Humans do unpredictable things – like fall in love, or drive too fast… I’m definitely not a fan, but I will grant it is safer to take a sip of water while driving if the car is steering, instead of using my knees. Computers are great, but not to be trusted with decision-making.

All of this is fun stuff. You would think I would be all into it, but such is not the case.

I actually like using a candle to walk around the house at night… hand-writing thank you notes – with a fountain pen… I like wine that hasn’t been adulterated with sugar and acids, but grown the old fashioned way… I prefer to grow my own vegetables, and fertilize them with the vegetable scraps that have been composted over time… I like to ride my bicycle, even if it does have electric-assist if I get tired. 🙂

Who is logging into my computer? The computer thinks it’s OK, but is it? Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the saving grace for all this nonsense. 2FA forces a human into the authentication process, and I think that’s critical. Don’t underestimate this key to staying in control of your digital assets. It really is important.

If you don’t have 2FA implemented already, call the Help Desk and choose option 2 for Wise Counsel.

08 Jan 2018

2FA, Business, Passwords, Security Joseph Squicciarini 0 comment

It’s All About Security

Everybody and every publication is finally pushing the need for tighter security. What’s lacking in much of what you read is the balance necessary between security and usability. If we make the network so secure that our teams can’t get any work done, it’s useless.

This year, Quo Vadis will be encouraging our clients to embrace Microsoft’s Password Guidance. Many of you may be reading in your own trade journals about the idea of passwords with no expiration. We agree! Our goal is password diversity to provide the best security. Today’s general password policies actually do the opposite of our intended goal.

A University of North Carolina study found 17% of new passwords could be guessed in five tries or less, given the old password. And almost 50% could be guessed in a few seconds of un-throttled guessing! So much for diversity.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is crucial to the security plans of the future. By way of reminder, two-factor authentication uses two out of three factors to confirm your identity.

Something you know (like your password)
Something you have (like your mobile phone)
Something you are (like your face or fingerprint)

I use 2FA for my Amazon account, my online banking, my email, remote access… everything I can. You should too!

Here are our recommendations to move forward.

Don’t use your business credentials outside work.
Use two-factor authentication whenever possible.
Use biometrics whenever possible.
Invest in a password manager.
Don’t store passwords in your browser.
Don’t reuse passwords!
Keep your operating system and application software updated. (We can do this for you.)

We will be reaching out to you shortly to remove your password expirations.