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

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is in use for people from other organisations, who collaborate with the University of Oulu and/or Oamk using the University of Oulu and Oamk 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 and 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 and Oamk M365 environment, you will be required multi-factor authentication in the future. When you sign in to the M365 environment at the University of Oulu and 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 and Oamk M365 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.

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:

Log in with your account ID at https://myaccount.microsoft.com/
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).
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.
Now you can manage your guest user ID in that organization.
Then, select Security info from the left side menu.
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.
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).
Manage MFA settings with a guest account in the Microsoft My Account portal.

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 and Oamk. After that, you will no longer have access to M365 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 guest user, lisätietoja, MFA, more information, organisaatio, organization, vierastunnus. Add the permalink to your favourites.