Microsoft mandates MFA for all Azure users

Microsoft would require multifactor authentication (MFA) for all prospects to sign-in to Azure portal, the Microsoft Entra and Intune admin centres beginning in October, the corporate mentioned in a weblog submit.

The corporate has begun sending 60-day notices to all Entra directors impacted by the change. Microsoft mentioned it can evaluation requests from prospects with advanced environments or technical limitations for extra time to implement obligatory MFA.

Microsoft will section in MFA at sign-in for Azure Command Line Interface, Azure PowerShell, Azure cellular app and infrastructure as code instruments in early 2025, the corporate mentioned.

The MFA mandate is a part of Microsoft’s Safe Future Initiative, an effort the corporate began in November to overtake its cybersecurity technique by integrating key safety features into its platforms and providers.

Microsoft CEO Microsoft Nadella doubled down on the corporate’s dedication to advance cyber safety safety in April, making safety the highest precedence after a withering report from the federal Cyber Security Evaluation Board within the US criticised the corporate for prioritising velocity to market over safety.

MFA adoption in enterprises stays a sticking level and a key distinction maker in probably stopping catastrophic assaults.

Two of essentially the most damaging cyberattacks this 12 months – a February ransomware assault towards Change Healthcare and a wave of assaults concentrating on greater than 100 Snowflake prospects – have been attributed to programs with out MFA.

Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure serves because the spine for the infrastructure, compute and providers it offers to prospects. Microsoft, the second-largest hyperscaler behind Amazon Net Providers, ended the second quarter with a 23% share of the cloud infrastructure providers market, in response to Synergy Analysis Group.

Microsoft’s MFA mandate on Azure is agency, however the firm is being versatile with the sorts of MFA prospects can use to satisfy the requirement.

Prospects can use Microsoft Authenticator, FIDO2 safety keys, certificate-based authentication, passkeys and textual content message or voice-based approval to implement MFA by way of Microsoft Entra, the corporate mentioned.

Learn Extra: Azure cyber safety Microsoft safety