Two Factor Authentication

What is Two Factor Authentication?

Two-factor authentication (2FA), sometimes referred to as two-step verification or dual factor authentication, is a security process in which the user provides two different authentication factors to verify themselves to better protect both the user's credentials and the resources the user can access. Adding this extra layer of security can vastly increase the protection of you user's accounts and their data.

Setup time: 5-10 Minutes

Impact Potential: High

What do I need to do?

There are different steps depending on your environment.

Once this is done, you'll need let you users know what they need to do to enable it. Here's a sample email you can send to your staff. This one is for Google districts so it will need to be adjusted for those of you using Office 365.

Email Template to Send to Your Staff

What is Two Factor Authentication?

Two Factor Authentication is an extra layer of security that gets applied when you log in. After you enter your username and password, Google will text your cell phone with a six-digit number that you'll need to type in to prove your identity. Two Factor Authentication significantly decreases the chance that someone can log in to your Google account if they have your account password.

How do I turn it on?

  1. Go to your Google Account.
  2. On the left navigation panel, click Security.
  3. On the Signing in to Google panel, click 2-Step Verification.
  4. Click Get started.
  5. Follow the steps on the screen.
  6. On the second step, Google gives you the option to use Google Prompt. Don't use that. Click the button below that says "Don't want to use Google Prompt? Choose another option." Select Text message from that box and continue on from there.

I encourage everyone to consider enabling this feature. We've been using it in the tech department for a few weeks now without issue. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.