Get to know Windows Azure Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication refers to a Characteristic of an authentication system or an authenticator that requires more than one authentication factors for successful authentication. Multi-factor authentication can be performed using a single authentication that provides more than one factor or by a combination of authenticators that provide different factors.

What is Azure Multi-Factor Authentication?

Having two different factors isn’t multi-factor authentication, that’s just having two different instances of the same factor. You need different factors and the more factors that are used the stronger the implementation is considered to be.

A debit card is a perfect example of multi-factor authentication.

Something you have – Card itself

Something you know – Pin Code

One factor alone isn’t enough to complete the transaction, so you are using the two different factors to prove that you are the owner of the bank account. That model has been built into the IT industry with organizations issuing multi-factor credentials to the users. Which could something static like software certificates that used in the combination of a static password or something more dynamic like hardware token that generates the one-time password that changes every 30 seconds?

RSA Secure ID is a well-known example, the user enters the passcode from the device into the browser and the passcode is validated on the server in order to verify they are in the possession of the token. Similarly, the new Microsoft authenticator App can perform the same function by providing the passcode to the user’s mobile device which is a part of the Azure MFA suite of tools.

Concept of Azure Multi-Factor Authentication

Username and password authentication probably aren’t going away any soon but adding another factor of authentication in a combination of username and password is a way to further assurance of the user identity.

Relevant Authentication factors

Memorized secret passwords or passcodes besides using an Azure MFA as the second factor of authentication after using the primary username and password, you see the Azure MFA can also leverage the static pin code assigned to an individual user while using the Azure MFA server on-premises

Out of band device is another authenticator type, it’s a physical device that uniquely addressable and can communicate securely over a distinct communication channel. So, in the case of Azure MFA that device is the mobile phone and the secondary network is the phone network or the internet when using the Microsoft authenticator APP.

Single Factor OTP device OTP stands for one-time passcode it’s a hardware token or software-based token generator installed on a device like mobile phone and generates one-time passcodes, it doesn’t require second channel to receive the passcode. The passcode is generated with a seed value and device clock. The password changes in regular intervals when you input the password to the system you are trying to access the password is verified on the server-side because the same seed value that’s been issue to your token is used to verify on the server.

Risk of Authentication Factors

No, factors or method of authentication is without its risk and threats.

In Something you know category could be compromised in variety of ways, the attacker might get the password using phishing or social engineering attacks or even through malware installed in computer like keyboard logger.

When it comes to Something you have factor, the device could get stolen or the hardware authenticator could get tampered with or software authenticator could get copied with user’s computer. In the case of authentication using phone calls and text messages over the public telephone network these could be intercepted or redirected.

And even in Something you are factor is acceptable to threats, the attacker could copy the user’s fingerprints and create a replica.

But the point is nothing is without its threat. So, the point of multi-factor authentication is to make successful attack to difficult, if an attacker needs to guess memorize secret and hardware authenticator then they much likely to hold to the both and out of band is used to proof of possession of a registered device become even more difficult. The attacker might get the password through a web application when the second factor of authentication send to your phone, they won’t have possession of your device to perform the second factor.

Understanding Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

So, now you know the passwords aren’t enough anymore, for better understanding what Multi-Factor Authentication is and how you can verify user’s identity. Azure MFA is service from Microsoft to add MFA to your cloud based and on-premises application.

Azure MFA can verify a user’s identity in a variety of methods:

• Phone call
  • The user responds by hitting #
  • The caller ID number can be chosen
  • Optional Pin code (Azure MFA server)
• Text Message
  • One way
  • Two way
  • Optional Pin code (Azure MFA server)

• Microsoft Authenticator App
  • Push verification
  • Optional Pin code (Azure MFA server)

• OATH Token

In terms of deployments, Azure MFA works like this, a user registers the device with the account, for strictly cloud-based scenarios that account is stored in Azure active directory in the user portal to register phone number is provided in the cloud. It is just a few clicks to add MFA to Azure AD accounts and everything is provide including the portals to mangae Azure MFA along with reporting on authentications. Once the phone is being registered with the user’s identity and whenever a user logs-in to an application is protected with Azure MFA they get an authentication request to their phone, that authentication request is sent by the Azure MFA service in the cloud.

Depending on the method of authentication, the user might receive the passcode and enter that into the Azure AD login page, or they might respond to the verification request using their phone and the verification flows back through the service. as shown in the right side of the below image.

On-premises deployments, the user’s identity can be kept in the Enterprise Active Directory or any LDAP store and you can download the Azure MFA server to install on a physical/virtual server in your environment. Also, this infrastructure could all be running on your VM’s in Azure as well, you can manually add user’s to Azure MFA server or synchronize identities from AD or LDAP and if you aren’t already storing your phone numbers in your directory that information can be added to identities in MFA server. They can seek in a user portal you can install on a webserver to allow users to manage the information themselves, or you can set up some users as administrators of the portal so they can manage groups of other users. Users can change the authentication mode. For EX: from the phone call mode to use the Microsoft Authentication app using the portal.

Key Takeaways

Azure MFA integrates with Azure Active directory, any workload or SaaS application that is using Azure AD, can use Azure MFA authentication with no extra configuration or deployments.

Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication is easy to set up, manage, and use – enabling companies to meet their security and compliance requirements while providing a simple sign-in experience for their users. As you can see, this service is universal and provides multiple options to explore. Moreover, you can integrate it directly with your applications – there is an API provided for that.

Top 7 Digital workplace trends of 2020

The digital workplace has been an ever-evolving business tool to excel for many organizations and so do the Digital Workplace Trends.

They say, “Lower-level minds discuss human beings, medium level minds discuss current affairs and the high-level minds discuss ideas” But the greatest of all minds discuss ‘Change’ and the ways to utilize change to its best!

The present global emergency has given rise to the urgent evolving needs to empower the workforce operating remotely. With the organizations trying their best to evolve, innovations in the pre-existing ways to connect continue to be worked upon to transform work culture and have a deep impact on today’s modern digital workplace environment. The major challenge now is the digitalization of the workplace to adapt quickly to meet the needs of the customers. In doing so, almost every company is looking to evolve its old intranet into a modern business tool. This investment is often expected to highly improve the employee experience, add workplace flexibility, and most importantly, upgrade their profitability/strategic business goals.

Modern Digital workplace trends 2020

Business leaders need to be constantly running for visualizing and achieving a sustainable digital practice i.e; to upgrade to latest relevant business strategies while keeping in mind, their feasibility according to their organizational culture.

But keeping up with the changes in the market and adopting newer trends that will produce favourable business outcomes might turn out to be critical too. In this blog, let’s look into the modern digital workplace trends that are going to impact the IT industry the most.

1. Flexible and remote work backed up by smart technology will be ever-popular

Fueled by global mobility, environmental concerns, higher real estate costs and now, the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the trend for remote working is experiencing a sharp rise. The modern digital workplaces are expected to be accessible on any device in any location. Thus, the days of an optionally accessed intranet will be gone soon! We can look forward to its evolution at jet speed, paving way for an era of an intelligent digital assistant with multiple smart features. Just like a good professional partner, your digital assistant will often know what you need even before you actually ask for it.

2. The Digital Workplace will become an integral part of the employee lifecycle.

While the concept of the intelligent workplace was initially considered to be a threat to the IT & HR departments, Internal Communications teams soon began to join forces with Technology colleagues to realize the enormous impact the tool has on collaboration and communication. Now, HR and other business leaders are showing a keen interest in streamlining and positively influencing the moments that matter within the employee lifecycle. From recruitment and onboarding to professional development, training, career development, and wellbeing programs, the Modern Digital Workplace is fast becoming an essential business tool.

3. The engaged employees in the Digital Workplace will slowly turn into influencers or brand faces.

The enthusiastic employees who will be the top users with a good internal following in the digital workplace can be proactively depicted as the company’s faces and can be used to circulate information about the organization’s products, campaigns and culture via their online social networks. This can turn out to be the most cost-effective, powerful, and trusted form of marketing. The best part about it is that many employees wish to have the ability to do it – we just need to make it easier for them. Modern digital workplaces will become better at enabling employees to share trusted information internally and externally at the touch of a button.

4. Microsoft Teams and Digital Workplace technology will become complementary to each other

Microsoft Teams now has more than 20 million daily active users, influenced by the fact that it’s available at no additional cost to people working with Office 365. It was designed while keeping the exponentially increasing popularity of Remote work in mind. It aimed at forming a hub for teamwork in the most effective way possible. It was designed to unleash the power of teams, be it 10 people or 1000 and so does its name suggest. Teams combine one to one messaging, group messaging, voice calling, video conferencing and document collaboration into a single integrated application to enable exciting new ways of working together. The Modern Digital workplace, when coupled with teams can literally do wonders!

5. Employees wish “the information they need to Excel” to find them (not the other way around!).

The emotional quotient of your workforce has a significant role to play in defining the overall productivity of your organization. Mental health thus needs to be taken care of by minimizing the effects of the constant flow of information on the web. Health and wellbeing are now high on almost every corporate agenda! The era of information overload continues in the workplace, where employees increasingly complain that they can’t find the information they need to successfully undertake their role, and business priorities get lost in this ‘noise’. To tackle this, the Modern Digital Workplace is continuously evolving to become more “intelligent”, driven by personalization, better search, improved Bots, and significantly enhanced Artificial Intelligence.

6. Businesses can’t afford language barriers.

Globalization has enabled more organizations to expand and find opportunities to explore new marketplaces. But for many, language barriers in the workplace are complicating international communication. Digital workplaces will increasingly have a critical role to enable seamless collaboration in different languages. Your intranet should be making sure that you are fully loaded with the tools and collaborative potential you need to truly take your workers to the next level of productivity.

7. More Decentralization in the workplace

Today’s business structures can be broadly classified under centralized and decentralized. In a centralized structure, decisions are usually taken by higher authorities who have control over the organization such as CEO, CTO, CIO etc. This structure is typically maintained in organizations with less than 200 employees. In a decentralized system, every employee in the organization has a voice in the innovative processes. Each department can come up with their respective directives for the future.

As businesses are required to undergo digital transformation and grow globally, organizations are left with no choice but to rapidly innovate. This can only be achievable in the present day scenario with decentralization. The digital workplace will boosts employee engagement. Thus, it will instil a sense of ownership and facilitate competitive advantage by leveraging the power of belongingness and innovation.

While these technological advancements promise to exceed expectations and improve employee efficiency, wisely choosing the one that meets the requirements specific to your organization is what makes the difference. The best approach is to keep up with the updating digital workplace trends and upgrade our technology according to it.

Top 10 Modern Intranet Features SharePoint Intranet

With the current rise in the Work from Home trend, an intranet with the best intranet features became the need of the hour. But choosing the one perfect for us is tacky. Let us help you out.

Don’t worry. We are here to help you ward off this confusion. Let’s take a quick look at the top modern intranet features that you should consider while choosing your SharePoint Intranet: 

Top Modern Intranet Features to SharePoint Migration

1. Company Dashboard 

Being away and still feeling connected to your organization is not that easy. To aid employees in doing so, the intranet must have a common dashboard. It should be a virtual synonymous space for the office notice boards and inter-employee chitchatting.  This space needs to have separate sections for company basic updates, announcements, and news. A great intranet will keep you updated on departmental updates, company policies, customer updates, and everything else that matters. A common announcement area will ensure that all the employees are on the same page with their colleagues.  

2. Branding Options 

The corporate identity of an organization is what matters the most! An intranet must provide enough customization options to make sure it looks like the platform that specifically belongs to the company.

Best corporate intranets allow configurations regarding themes, background images and section placements. Letting the organizations use their own logos and brand colours make each of them feel at home. Make sure you test the branding capabilities of an intranet before you opt for it. 

3. People-Centric 

An intranet is expected to be the virtual cultural hub of an organization. It should bind each of its users as a single unit. Therefore, an intranet should be “of the people” and “for the people” that emanates company culture in every way possible. Some of the desired modern intranet features of an employee-centric intranet are- 

• Push notification for matters of individual interest 
• Personal sub-theme option 
• Birthday and work anniversary portal 
• Appreciation and recognition center 
• Know your team section 
• Personalized profiles 
• Informal Forums  

4. Collaboration 

Ideas, when shared across, give rise to better ideas and ultimately to innovation! 

The most important requirement when working remotely is to have a proper collaborative platform in the organization. A good intranet must ensure a great flow of information that is on par with the real in-office conversations and collaborations. Along with that, it can work as a great platform to promote non-hierarchical communication too. Have an intranet that takes collaboration a notch higher.

5. Security 

Security is the prime concern for anybody and everybody. Every organization has some its own share of confidential data such as company plans & policies, personnel information and financial data, which if leaked to the competitors can lead to a hefty loss. This information needs to be shared only on a need-to-know-basis. An Intranet essential features should include proper multilayered security and encryption systems that block unauthorized access and ensure no security breaches. Choose your intranet wisely to relieve yourself from data theft, misuse and other such security concerns.

6. Content Management and Searchability 

Information, besides being an organization’s greatest assets, is the one most difficult to tackle too. An intranet should be used as a well-managed library rather than just an information dumping yard. The intranet should be intelligent enough to organize all the information and documents in the best way possible.  It must have a powerful search feature with lots of filters that will make sure the employees don’t need to waste their precious time in searching content and are able to utilize it for other productive works.  

A proper navigation feature will ensure simplified document management, thus maximizing adoption and productivity.  

7. Socializability 

The popularity of social media is known to all. The modern intranet features must be at par with those of the social media to make sure it is able to attract their traffic too. If a Sharepoint intranet can take up inspiration from the basics of social media, it can surely do wonders. Influence your digital workplace with social media features and to experience a great surge in your employee engagement. Let the employees post, tag, like, share and comment upon what they feel like without any censorship. Let them form official as well as unofficial groups and forums. 

Also make sure that the intranet can integrate the already existing business apps and platforms such as feeds,  yammer and teams to avoid the resentment to change among the employees. 

Choose an intranet service provider that makes your intranet as fun and engaging as social media. 

8. Mobility 

Mobility is a must in today’s fast pacing world where working at the go has become so common. The intranet must be mobile responsive and good enough to be used on smartphones. This can bring in a lot of ease to the life of your employees.  

Let the employees log in anytime from anywhere and deliver their best! 

9. UX/UI 

The visual features of an intranet play a vital role in determining employee engagement. It dramatically determines if the employees consider visiting the intranet as an obligation or are happy to be there. How well an intranet is organized directly impacts the user performance.  

Make sure that the intranet you choose is streamlined enough to be used by everyone in the organization irrespective of their tech-expertise. Besides, minor self customizations like tab locations, drop-down menu layouts, button designs and shortcut menus are desirable too. A good UI and UX can surely boost productivity and engagement. 

10. Accessibility and Governance 

Every information available on the intranet is not meant for everyone! Choose an intranet that segregates the access permissions according to the job roles, departments, administrative positions, location, personal or professional interests, etc. This will ensure the security and integrity of the departmental or hierarchical privacy. 

An intranet should also offer easy governance. Permission levels should be customizable according to organizational needs. Along with that, the Non-dependency of the content managers on the IT team can be a great feature to include in your intranet. 

An intranet is as successful as its adoption and employee engagement rate defines it to be. Make it the most fun and addictive place where the employees wish to come back again and again. And you yourself can figure out how humongous it will impact the overall organizational productivity.