The digital world is becoming increasingly “password-less”. While password safety has always been a point of concern, what if you could just use your phone as a means of signing in, instead of trying to remember an alphanumeric password with special characters every time? This is where authenticator apps that provide verification services come in.
Microsoft Authenticator is one such app that lets you use “password-less” sign-in features to log in to different accounts from your phone. You can go about it in two ways. The first is the two-factor authentication model. Let us assume that you enter your username for your LinkedIn account. You then receive a notification on your phone through the app, which you will have to approve. Your fingerprint, face ID or PIN works as a second layer of security in this two-step verification process.
The second is multi-factor authentication, which you can choose if you still prefer using a conventional password. Once you have entered your username and password correctly, you will have to confirm that the person logging on is really you by either approving a notification that comes to your phone or entering the one-time password (OTP) generated by the Microsoft Authenticator app. These OTPs are time-based.
The app is a good option if you are looking to secure all your major online accounts with an extra layer of protection. Be it your personal or professional email accounts, e-commerce, social media accounts or other non-Microsoft accounts, among others. All you have to do is enable two-factor authentication on these accounts to use the username, password and OTP combination to log in securely.
Category: Business and security
Ratings
Google Play Store: 4.7 stars
App Store: 5 stars
You could also look at: Google Authenticator, YubiKey, LastPass Authenticator
Thumb Rule is a series that looks at an app a week to keep you on track.
