Deployment of Multifactor Authentication (MFA) and management of authentication methods

When you log in for the first time, you will receive a More information required message after entering your username and password. Follow the instructions and select at least two different authentication methods on two different devices. 

After this, you can manage your authentication methods at https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info.

Log in to the service. Enter your username in the format username@ad.helsinki.fi (e.g. rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi or hy12345@ad.helsinki.fi).

You will then be redirected to the University's login page. At this stage, you can use the short login format (e.g. rkeskiva or hy12345), but the long format, username@ad.helsinki.fi (e.g. rkeskiva@ad.helsinki.fi or hy12345@ad.helsinki.fi), also works.

Click Sign in.

Management of authentication methods can be found at https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info

After logging in, you can access the “Security Info” page where you can manage authentication methods.

You can add a new authentication method under Add method. Select the authentication method to be added from the list. 

We strongly recommend that you add at least two authentication methods on two different devices. The recommended primary methods are Passkey in Microsoft Authenticator and Passkey.

Management of authentication methods can be found at https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info

You can add a new authentication method under Add sign in method. 

Select the authentication method to be added from the list that opens.

We recommend you to adapt multiple different authentification methods using two different devices so that you have alternative ways to authenticate your sign-in in case one of the other methods is not available (i.e. your mobile phone is lost or broken). You can add multiple methods of authentification as backup and choose an alternative method while you sign in in case you do not have access to your primary authentification method. 

The longest login interval for personal devices is 30 days, but some user groups have shorter times, such as five days for staff. On a risk basis, you may be asked to log in more often.

You can disable unused authentication methods by clicking on the Delete button next to them. Deleting methods is necessary if, for example, you lose your ID or change your mobile phone with the Microsoft Authenticator application.

When you change your phone, you must also transfer your MFA authentication to the new phone.

You can add authentication methods to several phones you are using at the same time.

If you restore from a backup when changing your phone (i.e. you transfer files and settings from your old phone to your new one), you will need to complete a separate authentication process on your new phone. Please do not remove MFA authentication from your old phone until you have successfully transferred it to your new phone.

If the transfer is unsuccessful, you can also reset your MFA authentication methods in the MyAccount service. 

Read more about resetting your authentication methods in the separate instructions.

After resetting, you can start adding the authentication method to your phone again from scratch. See the section on adding an authentication method for more detailed instructions. 

You can find solutions to the most common problems in the separate instructions.

Read Microsoft’s instructions for Multifactor Authentication deployment.