So my company decided to migrate office suite and email etc to Microsoft365. Whatever. But for 2FA login they decided to disable the option to choose “any authenticator” and force Microsoft Authenticator on the (private) phones of both employees and volunteers. Is there any valid reason why they would do this, like it’s demonstrably safer? Or is this a battle I can pick to shield myself a little from MS?
If your company is enforcing geographic location as a security qualifier then MS Authenticator can poll your device. Also you can use push authentication with the MS suite.
It’s done by IP address not phone or laptop GPS.
I just got it enabled and it most definitely wants your location. It has to poll my device’s location once an hour by my work’s policy.
That might be an optional requirement which can be set by the admins. On my phone (Android) I have disabled location permissions for the MS Authenticator app. I have no issues logging in. I also regularly have to deal with alerts for users with improbable geographic logins, because they have a VPN on their phone. So, they login from their PC from one location and then their phone logs into Azure from the other side of the planet moments later.
Yes it’s optional. A lot of companies have compliance requirements where none of this would fly.