Multi-Factor Authentication is a security technology that helps protect your Middlebury account from potential compromise by requiring the use of more than just a username and password to prove your identity during login.
Learn more about how you can start using Multi-Factor Authentication today to better protect your Middlebury account at http://go.middlebury.edu/mfa.
Be on the alert for a suspicious email purportedly sent with the subject line “Payroll Benefits.”. This is a confirmed phishing message, designed to trick you into divulging your username and password. Do not click on the links in the message or reply to the message. If you find a copy of the message in your inbox, please delete it. If you find a copy of this message in your spam quarantine, please ignore it and do not release it. The message will be deleted from your quarantine automatically in the next few days.
For more information about phishing attacks, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/phishing. For more information about the spam quarantine, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/spam.
Perhaps, after reading ITS’ recent announcement about “Multi-Factor Authentication”, you might be wondering, just what does this have to do with me?
Multi-Factor Authentication is one of the simplest and most effective steps that you can take to protect your Middlebury account and we’ve taken every possible step to make Multi-Factor Authentication simple and convenient.
ITS is introducing Multi-Factor Authentication because it has become increasingly obvious that passwords alone are not enough to protect your Middlebury account from being compromised. Multi-Factor Authentication is a tool that you can use to protect your Middlebury account. Using Multi-Factor Authentication protects you and, by extension, helps to safeguard the entire Middlebury College community.
Multi-Factor Authentication introduces one additional step during the login process to help ensure that it is really you and not someone else who has your password. It works by requiring a verification by phone in addition to your password. Any phone will work, including your office phone, your home phone, a regular cell phone, or a smartphone (like an iPhone or Android phone). You can even substitute a tablet, like an iPad, for the phone.
This extra verification step is only required if you are off-campus, and you have the option to only be prompted for the extra challenge once every 30 days (per device). The extra verification currently protects your email and Office 365 services, though ITS plans to expand Multi-Factor Authentication to additional services in the future.
Remember: you will only be prompted for the extra verification step if you are off-campus.
So, if you are off-campus, and trying to access email or Office 365, you will have to enter your username and password, just like normal, and then you will have to respond to an extra security challenge, by either answering your phone, typing in a verification code sent to your phone via text message, tapping “verify” on a mobile app notification, or typing in a verification code sent to you via the mobile app.
This extra step means that, even if someone has your password, they can’t access your account. They would still need to have access to your phone, to answer that extra security challenge, before they could get in.
If you are ready to get started with Multi-Factor Authentication, here’s what to do next:
Note that you will be asked to set up a primary and a backup contact method during the setup process, and you can choose between all of the options that you have configured.
The enrollment process only takes a couple of minutes to complete, but we do have to enable your account for Multi-Factor Authentication before you can get started. To request multi-factor authentication, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/getmfa, and submit a help desk ticket.
For more information on Multi-Factor Authentication, including tips to help ensure a quick and easy enrollment and setup, please review the Multi-Factor Authentication wiki at http://go.middlebury.edu/mfa.
Please note: This post is inspired by an article written by Kelly Gremban, at Microsoft, entitled, “What does Azure Multi-Factor Authentication mean for me?” A link to the original article can be found below.
References:
What does Azure Multi-Factor Authentication mean for me?
Kelly Gremban, Microsoft, August 22nd, 2016
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/multi-factor-authentication-end-user/
Multi-Factor Authentication image from http://it.miami.edu/
Be on the alert for a suspicious email purportedly sent from “DSchlegel@nazarethasd.org” with the subject line “RE: ALERT”. This is a confirmed phishing message, designed to trick you into divulging your username and password. If you find a copy of this message in your spam quarantine, please ignore it. If you find a copy of the message in your inbox, please delete it. If you find this message in your spam quarantine, do not release it. It will be deleted automatically in the next few days. Do not click on the links in the message or reply to the message.
For more information about phishing attacks, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/phishing.
For more information about the spam quarantine, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/spam.
Be on the alert for a suspicious email purportedly sent from “webmaster@middlebury.edu” with the subject line “Web Mailbox”.
This is a confirmed phishing message, designed to trick you into divulging your username and password. If you find a copy of this message in your spam quarantine, please ignore it. If you find a copy of the message in your inbox, please delete it.
If you find this message in your spam quarantine, do not release it. It will be deleted automatically in the next few days. Do not click on the links in the message or reply to the message.
For more information about phishing attacks, please visit http://go.middlebury.ed/phishing.
For more information about the spam quarantine, please visit http://go.middlebury.ed/spam.
Be on the alert for a suspicious email *purportedly sent* from “Public Safety” with the subject line “You have 1 Unread mail!”. This is a confirmed phishing message, designed to trick you into divulging your username and password. If you find a copy of this message in your spam quarantine, please ignore it. This message was not sent from Middlebury’s Department of Public Safety, but was cleverly constructured to look like it was. If you find a copy of the message in your inbox, please delete it. Do not click on the links in the message or reply to the message.
For more information about phishing attacks, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/phishing.
For more information about the spam quarantine, please visit http://go.middlebury.edu/spam.
The migration of Middlebury’s email services to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud environment is well underway. As of Friday, August 26th, we have moved 87% of all mailboxes to the cloud. Thank you so much for the help and feedback to date, it wouldn’t be possible without your support. The migration schedule can be found at http://go.middlebury.edu/cloud, updated daily.
For those of you that use Exchange Public Folders for departmental calendars, etc., we have an update. Public Folders will be unavailable for access from Tuesday, August 30th through Noon EST on Wednesday, August 31st. Public Folders are handled differently from mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange, and because of that difference they will be unavailable during their migration to the cloud.
When they are available again on August 31st, some users may need to re-open the Public Folders they normally access. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Here are the instructions for Outlook 2016 for Windows:
In Outlook, press Ctrl-6 to open the Folder View. You should see something like this:
To add a public folder to your Favorites, right-click the folder, then select Add to Favorites…. You should now be able to access it whenever you need it, including in the Calendar screen under “Other Calendars.”
Other platforms:
Thanks again for your support and understanding. Please contact the Helpdesk with concerns or issues.
ITS will implement a new “spam quarantine” feature on Friday, July 22, 2016. This change will help keep spam and phishing messages out of your mailbox, better protecting the Middlebury College community from phishing attacks and other email-borne threats. The new quarantine feature will change how you manage messages identified as spam by the mail system. Spam email will now be placed in a separate quarantine area, rather than being directed to your Junk Email folder.
Important: All messages in your quarantine area should be treated with special caution as they are most likely harmful to you and others! Do not click any links in these messages or release them to your Inbox unless you are absolutely sure that the message is legitimate. Be particularly suspicious of messages asking you to update your account, reset your password, expand your email storage quota, etc. Remember, any message that asks for your password or username is not to be trusted. For more information about how to protect yourself from phishing attacks, please see go/phish.
Messages identified as spam will be stored in the Spam Quarantine for 15 days. If you have received suspect messages, Microsoft will send you a daily “Spam Notification” email message. The messages are sent from quarantine@messaging.microsoft.com, once per day.
You can check your Spam Quarantine at any time by logging into go/quarantine (or directly via https://admin.protection.outlook.com/quarantine).
If you are missing a time-critical message, check your Junk E-Mail folder first, then check the Spam Quarantine, via go/quarantine.
For more details on managing the spam with the Spam Quarantine, as well as tips on how to use the the Blocked Senders/Safe Senders tools to allow or block specific email message senders, please visit go/spam.
MIIS users: Please be sure to login using the “username@middlebury.edu” format, “miis.edu” will not be recognized.
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