During login process, text and phone-call authentication options to be phased out
Using alternatives to the less-secure text and phone-call authentication options is advised for all users
From: Division of Information Technology
To help protect personal data and university systems from cyber attacks, Virginia Tech is moving towards a full upgrade of our Duo 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) service. Text message and voice call authentication methods are vulnerable to interception or spoofing, and are less secure than other methods. For this reason, these options will be eliminated in the near future.
This change has been proceeding gradually over the past year. Users who are still relying on the less-secure methods will begin seeing prompts during the Login process about the need to transition to a more-secure option.
What you need to know:
Users who currently rely on text messages or voice calls to authenticate are strongly encouraged to begin using more-secure methods as soon as possible.
These more-secure methods include using the mobile app, biometric or physical tokens, or software tokens.
Setting up one or more of these preferred methods will prevent the interruption of your ability to log in.
If you are already using the more-secure methods, no action is needed.
For complete information, including links on how to set up additional methods for authentication, visit the Enhanced 2-Factor page on it.vt.edu. If you have questions about 2FA, please reach out to your departmental IT office, or contact 4Help IT Support (online at 4help.vt.edu, or by phone at 540-231-4357).