Multi-factor Authentication

Around the state and country we’ve heard stories of a principal who sent obscene emails to an entire school, a bookkeeper who paid millions of dollars to a fake account, and a superintendent who sent a press release to local media announcing a huge raise for staff that had to be recalled. In each case, the real person didn’t really do those things, but someone with access to their email and storage accounts did. Can you imagine the damage done and the efforts it would take to roll back the impact?

District and school leaders are prime targets for spear phishing attacks. If you were to mistakenly follow a link or respond to a message that inadvertently turned over your username and passphrase great damage could follow. However, there is a way to lessen the chance you become a victim.

Multi-factor authentication (commonly called 2-step verification) is a security feature that individuals can enable on their accounts to provide an added layer of data and identity security.

In 2020-2021 a few district leaders enabled this feature in Google. In the summer of 2021, all technicians enabled the same step. Throughout 2022, we’re asking specific additional staff to do the same. Likewise, once you’ve enabled MFA on your own account, we’d like you to pass along the same request to any bookkeeper or secretary you lead that handles money or mass communication. Please do NOT ask any other faculty or staff to do so.

If you have any questions about the need for MFA, please feel free to contact Steve Burton or Aaron Yeiser. 

Steps to Turn on Multi-factor Authentication

• Click your profile icon

• Select Manage your Google Account

• Click Security and then 2-Step Verification

• Log in

• Enable your 2-step verification with the default Google prompt and voice/text message.

• Your browser will then ask you to verify your identity on your phone’s Gmail app. 

If you have any questions about these steps, please feel free to email [email protected].