Dear User, In an effort to protect your personal information, we are embarking on a project to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (also known as MFA or 2FA). MFA is an additional layer of security that will confirm your identity when logging in to an application or system. You may already be familiar with MFA if you use it with any of your personal apps or services, like banking or email. How will it work? For example, let's say you are logging in to your Trinity Western email. After entering your username and password, you will be prompted for an additional piece of information. You had already enrolled in Microsoft Authenticator as your preferred MFA method* so you get a notification from this app on your iPhone or Android device. You provide the requested information and are successfully logged in. By taking this extra step, a hacker can't access your account even if they have your password. *We're still determining which methods of MFA will be implemented in our environment. Multiple methods will be available, so you can choose the one that is most convenient for you. This sounds inconvenient and complicated. While this does add another step to the login process, it is essential to protecting everyone's data. It is easier than ever for hackers to obtain someone's password and steal or delete their information. Using the Microsoft Authenticator app adds about 10 seconds to the login process. When will it be implemented? We are targeting late August 2024 to have this rolled out to all Staff, Faculty and Students. We will be communicating with you regularly up until that date, ensuring you are prepared with exact dates and relevant information. What do I need to do? No action is required at this time. Please keep an eye out for further communication where we will outline dates, action items and provide training materials. Who can I contact with questions or feedback? If you have any questions regarding MFA, you can contact the Service Hub.
Sincerely, TWU Information Technology Trinity Western University |hub@twu.ca