MadWolf is going Two - Factor!

In the second half of last year, Steve made an announcement during a company-wide meeting that MadWolf as a company would be stepping up it’s security practices.  Enter Multi-factor authentication.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has already been in use for Ocular Passportal, our password management system for a while.  Now, this week, MadWolf is enabling MFA for N-Central and Connectwise.  Using MFA is not hard to use, but you do need to setup a second level of authentication and with the MadWolf applications currently configured, that generally means the use of a phone app.  Popular apps for managing MFA are Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Duo Mobile.  These apps are available for both Android and IOS. 

Many of us may already have Duo installed because of Ocular’s requirements, but for N-central and Connectwise, you have your choice of which app you wish to use.  I chose to use Microsoft Authenticator since I already manage all of my 2fa accounts with this app and I’ve been happy with it.  To set up my 2fa app to work with N-central and Connectwise was very simple and the steps will be similar no matter which app you use.

• Connectwise:  Click the drop-down arrow next to your name and select “My Account”.  In the password area, click to enable MFA.  A screen will be displayed with a QR code to be scanned by your MFA app.  In the MFA app, add and new account (usually by clicking the “+” sign) and this will launch the camera.  Scan the QR code with the app.  Now the new account will be listed in the app with a rotating authentication #. Connectwise will ask you to input the confirmation # from the app.  And that’s it!  Your account is configured.
• N-central:  Setup is similar except that MFA has already been configured for your account. On your first login, a QR code will be displayed that will need to be scanned by your MFA app.  Once scanned, N-central will be added to your list of applications with a rotating passcode.  The N-central login will be waiting for that passcode, so enter it now.  Congratulations, MFA has now been configured for your account.

For those who are really security conscious and want to use MFA for everything MadWolf related, Office 365 does offer the option to enable MFA.  Right now, we are not requiring that everyone use MFA (this could change!), but this can be enabled individually, just let your Office 365 administrator know that you would like this service enabled.