Microsoft’s Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) service went down for the second time in just over a week.
The problem occurred on Nov. 27 around 9:15 am Eastern when several Office 365 users began reporting on Twitter that they were unable to log into their service due to MFA issues.
Microsoft's Azure status dashboard was updated around 10:15 a.m. ET suggestting the possibility of a cross-region potential outage impacting MFA.
"Impacted customers may experience failures when attempting to authenticate into Azure resources where MFA is required by policy,” the dashboard status said. “Engineers are investigating the issue and the next update will be provided in 60 minutes or as events warrant."
Just over a week earlier, Office 365 users were hit by another multi-factor authentication issue which left users across the globe unable to sign into their Microsoft services.
Mimecas Product Manager Pete Banham told SC Media that with two outages in just over a week, any mitigation costs have likely paid for themselves many times over already.
“When everything is working smoothly, it can be easy for an organization to judge a backup plan as an unnecessary expense, but as incidents like this show, the potential disruption could come at an even greater price,” Banham said.
“This latest outage makes clear that relying on a single supplier is simply not an option," he said. "Every organization must evaluate whether they have the right cyber resilience and continuity plan in place to stay up and running regardless of any future incidents.”
