Microsoft 365 – number matching changes

Technology is advancing, this goes for business and hackers alike. Hackers and ‘bad actors’ are more frequently finding ways to gain access to your accounts and therefore your systems and information. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an important step to preventing hackers from accessing your data; even if they have your username and password, if you have MFA setup, they should not be able to gain access to your accounts.

However, Microsoft have identified that their current ‘approve and deny’ MFA system has led to some MFA fatigue in users. MFA fatigue occurs when users are regularly asked to approve access and automatically do so without considering the action and consequences. To promote mindfulness within users and increase security measures Microsoft is changing the approve/ deny MFA method to a number matching system; designed to give users a further chance to consider if the authentication request is legitimate.

What are the implications for you?

From the 8th of May users will sign in and approve account access by inputting the number on their machine into the multifactor authenticator application and access will only be granted if the numbers match.

This change should make a difference to the rise in MFA fatigue related security breaches and result in a more secure working environment.

Instead of seeing this:

You will see this:

What Matrix thinks about number matching

Here at Matrix, we use MFA number matching ourselves as a security must. MFA number matching is enabled company-wide (meaning all employees adhere) by default and removes the ability of our accounts to be compromised by malicious intent.

We try to encourage as many of our customers as possible to enable MFA number matching because of the massive layer of security it can bring them as this leaves them worrying less about their cyber security and more time to focus on their companies’ true goals.