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A more safe, 2-factor authentication (MFA) for M365 with a guest user account

Author: Maria Salmela-Karhu | Published: 9.2.2022
Keywords: , , , , , ,

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is in use for people from other organisations, who collaborate with the University of Oulu or Oamk using our Microsoft 365 environment. This applies e.g. to people who have been invited to join our Teams or who have access to a shared content, such as files, on Oulu University or Oamk OneDrive or SharePoint environments. A Guest user account is basically some other email address than our organization’s email. 2-Factor/Multi-Factor Authentication, MFA makes it difficult to abuse user names. (If the subject is not familiar to you, read more about MFA.)

When MFA is deployed for Guest users and you have a guest user account in the University of Oulu or Oamk MS 365 environment, you will be required multi-factor authentication in the future. When you sign in to the Microsoft 365 environment at the University of Oulu or Oamk, you will receive a notification More information required at the login stage. You will be directed to set your authentication method. Follow the on-screen instructions and insert the phone details you wish to use for authenticate your login (step by step images of the setting of authentication method at the end of this page). It is recommended to use the Authenticator application as the verification method (more information on different verification methods).

Please NOTE, that Multi-Factor authentication does NOT apply to normal Teams meetings. If it is a Teams channel meeting and you join a meeting as a registered team member, MFA may be asked.
Tip: if you want to make sure you will see the chat of the channel meeting, please join the channel meeting from the meeting link on the channel in the University of Oulu’s or Oamk’s Teams, instead of the link in your email/calendar. By joining the channel meeting from our Teams, you will make sure you can join the chat as well.

Guest user in university or Oamk MS 365 with the ID of other organization or with a private account

  • You will be asked for additional identification when you sign in after MFA is introduced.

Guest user in Oamk MS 365 with the ID of the University of Oulu

  • Additional identification (MFA) will not be required, if
    • you have been invited to join Oamk Teams with the university account or you have been shared some content, for example files, from Oamk OneDrive or SharePoint environments AND
    • you use the service on university or Oamk campus network or with a VPN connection.

Guest at the University of Oulu MS 365 with Oamk ID

  • Additional identification (MFA) will not be required, if
    • you have been invited to join the University of Oulu Teams with Oamk account or you have been shared some content, for example files, from the University’s OneDrive or SharePoint environments AND
    • you use the service on university or Oamk campus network or with a VPN connection.

Manage MFA settings as a guest user

If you need to change the authentication methods or wish to set authentication methods in advance, do the following:

  1. Log in with your account ID at https://myaccount.microsoft.com/
  2. At the top right of the portal, select the icon Organizations (icon is close to your profile picture) which opens a list of all organizations you have been invited to as a guest (see the image below).
  3. From this list that opens on the right, select the organization whose guest user authentication method you want to change under Other organizations you belong to.
  4. Check that the logo of the organization your chose appears at the top left of the page (logo appears next to to the text “My account”). Now you can manage your guest user ID in that organization.
  5. Then, select Security info from the left side menu.
  6. Now you can see the identification methods registered for this guest organization and you can update them or you add a new method from +Add method.
  7. You can return to the view of your own organization by selecting first Overview from the left side and then your organization from the Organizations menu from the top right (or selecting your private account if you have been invited to be a user by some other than an organization ID).

    An overview is displayed in the background showing the account information (blurred in the picture). An organization menu has been opened with (as blurred here) information about which organization account is enabled. Other organizations appear as a list below it. In the photo, the user is on the account of his own organization and is a member of both the University of Oulu and Oamk environments, which appear in the list.

    Management view on Microsoft’s My Account portal. You can change the organization through the organizations menu, where the guest account information will be available in the management view of the organization.

How to leave the organization

  • If you no longer collaborate with the University of Oulu or Oamk, you can leave the organization if you wish. In the Organizations menu, select Manage organizations and select Leave organization under the University of Oulu/Oamk. After that, you will no longer have access to O365 environments of this organization or files that have been shared with you.

Setting authentication method at login (images)

More Information required window, which tells you that the organization needs more information to keep your account protected. In the window, a link is provided to the user who wants to access using a different account. At the end there is the Next button.

Figure 1: Additional sign-in window when multi-factor authentication requires more information.

Additional Security verification view, Step 1: How should we contact you. Here is the verification phone number selected, and the Finnish area code, the phone number field is still empty in the picture. There are two method options is this current example: Send me a code by SMS and Call me. Under this, information that your phone numbers are only used to protect your account. Normal phone and SMS fees.

Figure 2: Additional sign-in window when multi-factor authentication requires more information; adding phone details.

Step 2 of the Security verification view. We've sent a SMS to your phone to +358 (the number is covered in the photo). The view has a text field and above a text that says “When you receive the verification code, enter it here”. The field is still empty in the picture, which is why buttons Cancel and Check are still inactive.

Figure 3: Additional sign-in window when multi-factor authentication requires more information; verifying the account.

Here is the same additional security check view as before, but in the situation where the check has been made, as the view says that “Verification was successful!”. Below that the Done button is waiting for an acknowledgement.

Figure 4: Additional sign-in window when multi-factor authentication requires more information; successful verification.

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This article was published in categories English version available, All instructions, Oamk , for Oamk staff, for Oamk students, for the University of Oulu staff, for the University of Oulu students, accessible content, UniOulu and tags , , , , , , . Add the permalink to your favourites.