Microsoft Consolidates Its Multi-factor Authentication App

Microsoft is consolidating its multi-factor authentication apps, offering both consumers and business users a unified, password-enhancing experience.

Multi-factor authentication, whether delivered via a mobile app, a text messaging service, dedicated dongle or other solution, helps protect organizations and users from easily hacked passwords and credentials that were gleaned from breaches, phishing emails and other attempts to gain entry into user accounts. Instead of relying solely on one password, multi-factor authentication schemes employ a second mechanism or service like a text message sent to a user's phone to reduce the likelihood that an attacker can successfully access. Last month, a survey conducted by Mail.com revealed lax security password practices that may keep IT professionals up at night.

An estimated 20 percent of Americans use the same password across multiple services, making the jobs of cyber-criminals much easier. A third use birthdays and other easy-to-guess combinations of letters and/or numbers like "123456" as passwords.