What exactly is the purpose of this Authenticator every day asking you to put some numbers before you can continue with teams or outlook.
Is this about trying to confirm if you are in front of your computer?
25 replies (most recent on top)
@kg it’s not just your phone. If you don’t install on your phone you are given a thumb drive you plug in when it pops up that verifies off your fingerprint. Better option?
@ek Since taking over, Charlie has forced every Microsoft product there is (Authenticator, cloud storage, copilot, power BI, etc). He’s using his position to juice product sales. Clearly a conflict of interest but he’ll just smile his way through it while talking about how great AI is.
@pj This guy clearly doesn’t know that a phone isn’t required.
@kg way to insult someone and then prove you’re mentally challenged in the same sentence
Rubes. Just say no to the phone app. They do not need your personal information. Yes it’s only weekly, but sometimes I have to redo it six times on the day it pops up.
There are some serious nutters on this forum.
Purpose? To drive attrition, same purpose as everything else.
You also need authenticator to print w2 from home computer.
@ek you literally gave all your info away the minute you connected to the internet - but yeah conspiracy to make money - ok
Microsoft Authenticator is to fill the gap of your personal data Microsoft no longer gets from your PC. People use smartphones and not Windows computers like they used to. When you download Authenticator, before you accept the EULA, Microsoft has already captured MAC address, IP address and the apps installed on your phone. The company cannot force you to download on your personal device. They can change your job or your function or just fire you for any reason or no reason at all(in most states). There should have a been a revolt on this from the beginning. At the end of the day this was to capture data to get back to selling your data so Microsoft could make more money. On a side note, how does a person sit on Microsoft board and the CEO of a bank that exclusively uses Microsoft products. Big conflict of interest in my opinion. Any attorneys out there that understand how that works? And he does get paid being on the Microsoft board. ~300k yr
I wish it only authenticated once per week, but I honestly get it daily and sometimes multiple times per day. sometimes it outlook, other times it's teams, many times when going to a SharePoint site. I've also heard that this is more a Microsoft requirement than a WF one but who knows.
Yes, but per @ax+1ke7zf9mc, what are the odds of it preventing a security breach that would not have already been prevented by the first two requirements if it only occurs periodically?
For it to truly be effective MFA, wouldn’t it have to occur every time you either log-in, unlock your computer, or even go inactive while computer is unlocked? Because if your computer is locked/turned off and the hypothetical perpetrator doesn’t have your password, authenticator is irrelevant. If they know your login/password, or you’ve left your computer unlocked when they gain access, then authenticator will only help if it happens to ping you then… which doesn’t seem highly likely with its current rate of refresh.
I guess they could make it so you have to re-authenticate every time you log-in/unlock, but then it becomes a huge P-I-T-A that hurts productivity and incentivizes people to not lock their computers when they step away… which then means it would also need to re-ping if no mouse/keyboard activity for a few minutes.
Maybe I’m missing something and someone who works for IT or Corporate Security can step in here and explain, but to me it just seems d-mb.
@ap i have a separate phone for this d-mb app and i forgot that day
It fills one of the three ideal MFA requirements.
Something you are - identity/login
Something you know - password
Something you have - authenticator token
Is it poorly implemented? Yes, but so is every cloud service, because cloud is about making money for the provider, not good performance.
MFA for cloud hosted services. First factor is your password and second factor is the Authenticator on your phone. Second factor is enforced once a week.
@ap If you have a corporate mobile device running Authenticator this is a very real possibility, and it’s happened to me before.
Didn’t take my corp phone with me to the office, because why would I? Desk phone and soft phone are both available, all apps are on the computer.
15 minutes after logging in I’m prompted to authenticate. Back home I go, which is 25 minutes one way. So much productivity.
just to force you install authenticator app on your phone.
It’s d-mb. It made me authenticate three different applications today. And this isn’t the first time. I’m pretty sure one authentication is sufficient. And for F’s sake, I’ve used Wells Fargo computers for 25+ years and this wasn’t necessary. It really still isn’t otherwise why make us log in and out of our computers? A waste of time and productivity as it slows up apps from loading in the morning. Took me 20 minutes to authenticate and get the apps to fully load afterwards.
It authenticates your existence until AI takes over. After that it will become unnecessary.
The purpose is to authenticate you
Mine still just does it once per week I’m pretty sure. Ostensibly it’s just another layer of security. But I’m not really sure what security breaches it is preventing that aren’t already prevented by the Ad-ent login password. For it to make a difference, someone would have to already have your computer while it’s unlocked, or have your password, but for you to be lucky enough that the periodic authenticator refresh just so happens to occur at that moment, before they’re able to find whatever they’re looking for.
Tbh I kind of wonder if we just have it because Charlie is on the board at Microsoft so this juiced the numbers for one of their phone apps.
@aj you didn’t bring your phone to work?
One time I had to drive home to get my phone to authenticate it (I live 2 miles away).
A new implementation of Zero Trust?
everything is in the cloud, it is confirming you are who you are supposed to be. it is a bit annoying. at first it was just once in a while now it is multiple times per day. god forbid you forget your phone at home or accidently enter the wrong number. if you consider 200k people having to spend upwards on a minute each day doing this stuff, it adds up