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(en) MultiFactor authentication

Owned by Martin Hochreiter
May 10, 2023
2 min read

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides an additional layer of protection for signin into Office365 and other services, e.g. Remote Desktop (winremote) or DPW.
For access, users must provide a second authentication step, e.g.

  • by confirming the identity with an app on the smartphone,
  • or by using a Hardware-Token (e.g. YubiKey, FIDO2)
  • or by entering a code sent to the mobile phone
  • or by entering a code from an incoming call  to specified phone number.

Apps such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams or apps on the smartphone usually only require MFA confirmation when connecting for the first time,
so confirmation is not required each time the app is opened.

This can make it much more difficult for third parties to misuse your account and is strongly recommended.

Activate MFA

Do it yourself

On the URL https://myaccount.microsoft.com click on "Security Info" to configure one or multiple options for MFA.

We recommend to use a so-called "Authenticator" for MFA. These apps on your mobile phone are available from Microsoft, Google, Facebook and many more.
(Caveat: Remote desktop - winremote - is only tested with Microsoft Authenticator App. According to user experiences Google MFA is not working)


When setting up the AuthenticatorApp, only a randomly generated number is transmitted, no personal data, no company information of the university.
This is also the variant where no telephone number or similar data has to be disclosed when using private devices.


If you do not want to use an app, you can easily configure a phone call or a text message as well.
It may come in handy in some situations to setup more than one options to have an alternative available.

The prefered (default) method for MFA can be configured on this site too.

Via Support

To activate MFA, please send a mail to support@fhstp.ac.at, after about one hour after activation, you  Microsoft will guide you through
the setup process the next time you log on to an Office365 service:

Introduction video

If you have any questions, please contact the IT Support Team.