Microsoft has announced the general availability of several new security capabilities in its Microsoft Authenticator app. The first new feature that the company highlighted today is number matching support, which prompts users to enter a number displayed on the sign-in screen to verify their identities.
Last month, Microsoft warned about the rise in MFA fatigue attacks targeting enterprise customers. A multifactor authentication (MFA) fatigue is a technique that allows attackers to make multiple login attempts to log into users’ accounts.
The number matching feature helps IT admins prevent accidental approvals in the Authenticator app and protect users against MFA fatigue attacks. As of today, it’s possible for IT admins to disable number matching in Microsoft Authenticator push notifications. However, Microsoft plans to turn on the feature by default for all customers by Feb 28, 2023.
“To protect you, we’ll automatically enable critical security features to tackle ever-changing threat vectors. At the end of February 2023, we’ll enable number matching for all Authenticator users. We highly recommend that you leverage the rollout controls and deploy these exciting security upgrades to Microsoft Authenticator,” Microsoft explained.
Microsoft Authenticator shows additional context in approval requests
Microsoft Authenticator is also getting a new security feature that lets users view additional context in approval notifications. Once enabled, users can identify the name of the application and the sign-in location based on the IP address.
In addition, Microsoft has announced the release of updated Admin UX and APIs. The latest update also brings a highly-requested feature that lets IT Pros exclude specific groups from feature rollouts.
Lastly, Microsoft announced that the Authenticator app now uses a privacy feature called “App Transport Security” (ATS) on iOS devices. The feature helps administrators to ensure privacy and data integrity between the app and web services. Moreover, Microsoft Authenticator now allows Android users to search their accounts, with support for iOS devices to follow in the coming months.