
Azure AD MFA is a more comprehensive and flexible option for MFA, while Office 365 MFA is specifically designed for Office 365 services and nothing more. This includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. On the other hand, Office 365 MFA is a feature of Office 365 that provides multifactor authentication for Office 365 services only. Azure AD MFA is part of the Azure AD premium offering and provides additional features and capabilities such as conditional access policies and integration with third-party authentication providers. Azure AD MFA is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) offering that provides multifactor authentication for a variety of cloud and on-premises applications, including Office 365.

MFA helps protect against takeover attacks, where attackers try to gain access to user accounts via stolen or guessed passwords.Īzure AD MFA and Office 365 MFA are both multifactor authentication offerings from Microsoft, but they have different scopes and uses. The second authentication method can be in the form of a phone call or a text message to an approved number, or an app notification on their smartphone.

MFA improves overall security posture by requiring users to provide a username and password while signing in and then requiring a second authentication method.

If an organization is not already using multifactor authentication (MFA) for logging into a Microsoft Azure environment, then it is time to consider turning it on. Many users need to authenticate multiple times per day to access the applications and data they need to work, but organizations that use Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) can deploy specific authentication controls to restrict non-trusted access to business data within the purview of Microsoft software and services, including Microsoft 365.
