Microsoft Office 365, Azure users couldn’t sign into accounts after multi-factor authentication issue

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Microsoft’s troubles continue with some Microsoft Office 365 and Azure users being locked out of their accounts for most of the day on November 19. A multi-factor authentication (MFA) issue hit users worldwide, even affecting their ability to do self-service password resets. An Office 365 status page on the issue described the problem of users weren’t receiving prompts on their mobile devices (SMS, call, or push) and Microsoft is investigating the issue. The company hasn’t released yet what caused the problem.

Meanwhile, those on Azure may have problems accessing resources like Azure Active Directory when MFA is required. Azure engineers have deployed a hotfix but this took some time to take effect, particularly for Europe and Asia Pacific users. It did help reduce the number of authentication errors and it tipped off the engineers that some of its customers were not getting the SMS, call, or push notifications for MFA. Microsoft claims some users are now “authenticating successfully” but they are still addressing the delays experienced by other users.

Source: ZDNet + TechCrunch