Azure AD

In my last post I looked at the state of authentication for non-technical folk, pointing out that there are too many barriers and an insufficient amount of scaffolding to lift them off the ground floor. The answer that’s come back from Microsoft and others is ‘just use FIDO2’ – but this apex method isn’t without its own issues. No phone, no problem! If you’re not familiar with what FIDO2 involves, have a look at this session from last year’s Microsoft Ignite; it’s one of the clearest explanations I have seen....

At the February Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance user group, Eric Woodruff (@msft_hiker), author of Eric On Identity, gave an excellent presentation on the topic of passwordless authentication. This struck a chord with my recent experience in the field, particularly in terms of the new Authentication Strengths feature in Azure AD. This post is based on my Q&A with Eric and feedback I submitted to the Azure AD team (thanks to the brilliant @merill for that) and sets it in a wider picture, namely that we’re making better technology than we’re using; there seems to be a gap in terms of getting the security we know we need into widespread practice....