Microsoft has announced a new feature called Authenticator Lite that will allow users to complete multi-factor authentication (MFA) requests for Microsoft 365 apps directly in the Outlook app on their Android or iOS devices.
The feature will likely require users to enter a code or approve a notification after entering their password. Authenticator Lite is set to be rolled out to Outlook users worldwide by the end of the month.
This move by Microsoft is expected to fast-track MFA adoption among Microsoft 365 users as the Outlook app has a much larger user base than Microsoft’s Authenticator app.
The Outlook app has more than 500 million downloads on Android and 5.5 million reviews on iOS, while the Authenticator app has 50 million downloads on Android and 233,100 reviews on iOS.
Authenticator Lite will allow hundreds of millions more Microsoft 365 customers to enable and use MFA to secure their accounts.
Integrating MFA authentication directly into Outlook mobile apps will make it much easier for users to authenticate their sessions without switching between multiple apps.
Microsoft’s Director of Identity Security, Alex Weinert, stated that MFA reduces the risk of account compromise by more than 99.9%, regardless of the password.
Weinert added that MFA makes it harder and costlier for attackers to break into accounts. A study cited by Weinert showed that less than 0.1% of accounts using any MFA were compromised.
As part of the same push to boost MFA adoption, Microsoft-owned GitHub announced that two-factor authentication (2FA) will be mandatory for all active developers starting today.
This means that every developer who is still active on the platform will need to have 2FA enabled to access their account.
