A change to MFA while on campus

A few weeks ago we required employees to use a new set of requirements for passwords and added the use of MFA, or multi-factor authentication (using an Authenticator app or a code sent by text in addition to your password) to most software applications in order to increase the security of those systems. One of the consequences of that change was that faculty have needed to use MFA when they use the bunkers in the classrooms. While this has not been a problem, it does have the potential to cause issues if a faculty member does not bring their phone to the classroom or if they are using a cellular connection in a classroom with poor reception.

As a result we will be removing the requirement for all employees to use MFA for Canvas, Office365 and Zoom when you are on campus. We will also not require students to use MFA for Canvas, Office365 and Zoom while on campus when we enable MFA for them tonight. We believe that removing a potential obstacle to instruction is worth the small extra risk posed by this change.  We will continue to explore how we can secure these applications without the possibility of those changes impacting teaching and learning. 

Note that you will still need to use MFA to access Workday when you are on campus (the same will be true of students accessing Workday and Bank Mobile while on campus).

The biggest risk to security comes from hackers off-campus trying to get into our systems. Therefore we will still be requiring employees to use MFA for all TCC systems when accessing them from off-campus. And, starting tomorrow, students will also need to use MFA for all TCC systems when accessing them from off campus.

Please let me know if you have any questions.