New identity features help empower essential Firstline Workers

[Alex Simons (AZURE)]

Hello everyone,

COVID-19 is creating unprecedented challenges in our communities and making the importance of essential workers more visible than ever. Firstline Workers are maintaining critical supply chains, keeping essentials stocked at retail stores, delivering vital supplies, serving as first responders, and caring for the most vulnerable. During this challenging time, organizations worldwide need to empower these workers with secure access to tools and technology to do their jobs. Today we’re announcing new Azure AD Public Preview features that enable critical Firstline Worker productivity.

SMS sign-in for Firstline Workers

Remembering multiple sets of credentials is cumbersome, especially for Firstline Workers who often have multiple employers and systems to use. To enable convenient, low-friction access, we’ve released SMS sign-in to help Firstline Workers seamlessly sign into their Azure AD account by entering their phone number and receiving a one-time password (OTP) via SMS/text.

To start, a user enters their phone number instead of their username. A 6-digit code is sent to their phone number via text message. Once they enter the 6-digit code, they are signed into their account. The next time the user signs in, they’ll receive a new 6-digit code to sign in.

Check out our documentation to get started with SMS sign-in today.

Delegated user management with My Staff

A common challenge customers face is scaling their IT operations to support thousands or millions of Firstline Workers. Forgetting their passwords or adding a new phone number can quickly overwhelm corporate IT teams and escalate helpdesk costs. With My Staff, organizations can empower Firstline Managers to reset passwords and manage phone numbers for their employees, reducing burden on a centralized helpdesk.

To get started, a manager signs into My Staff, selects the user’s location, and opens their profile. From here, the manager can reset a user’s password or manage their phone number.

To learn more about My Staff and how to empower your Firstline Managers, check out our documentation.

Shared device sign-out

Increasingly, Firstline Workers are sharing tablets or mobile device between shifts, posing unique security challenges to organizations. With shared device sign-out for Android and iOS, Firstline Workers can sign out of all applications and web browser sessions with a single click, before handing the device to another coworker or returning it to a hub. Customers can choose to integrate this capability into all of their line-of-business apps using our authentication libraries.

In this example, a user is logged into a shared iOS device. At the end of a shift, the user clicks the ‘sign out’ button in the app to make sure that the next user does not have unauthorized access to company or customer data.

Check out the documentation to learn more about how to enable shared device sign-out for Android and iOS.

We encourage you to check out these new features in Public Preview today and share your feedback! Learn more about Microsoft’s newly announced Firstline Worker offer and Microsoft Teams tips on how to enable Firstline Workers. Stay tuned for more technology for Firstline Workers.

Best regards,

Alex Simons (@alex_a_simons) 

VP of Program Management

Microsoft Identity Division

[hkusulja]

Nice post and features. However:
1. What about security for SMS sign-in? Documentation states: SMS-based authentication isn't currently compatible with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication.
2. What about easy shared device / sign in for Windows 10 PC's or tablets? Example use in warehouse etc.
This is too complex for some scenarios - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/set-up-shared-or-guest-pc

[Fabian Seither]

Are there any plans to support shared device mode in all O365-Apps on iOS and Android?

[TomAafloen]

Awesome news!

Will these users have a claim showing that they used this sign-in method? May want to block them from sensitive stuff.

[rachelteller]

@hkusulja

1. SMS is still more secure than passwords, but this sign-in method is not recommended for those accessing sensitive information.  For users who may access sensitive information part of the time, we recommend setting CA policies at the app level.  

2. I'll follow up with you on this one.  

@TomAafloen users will not have a claim specifically showing that they used this sign-in method, but if you were to set an MFA policy on an app these users would be prompted to sign-in using a different mechanism. 

[gregwe5689]

Hello,

Great News!

Can Someone share informations on which apps do the shared device feature support?

Thanks a lot!