On August 12th all UF staff will be enrolled in UF’s multi-factor authentication system. A password will not be the only thing needed to login to UF systems. A second factor, like a DUO push notification, a phone call, or a security token will be needed for access.

More information about multi-factor authentication can be found on UF’s project site: https://it.ufl.edu/2fa/

Here are a few tips that we’ve found along the way that should help you out as well:

• Make sure to register your office phone line. When you are having trouble with your cell phone (you either forgot it at home or ran it out of charge) it’s always good to have another easy option.
• Register your home phone as well… for the exact same reason as above.
• Register your cell phone as a “Call Me”, “Passcode” and “Duo Push” device. If the app has issues, you’ll still be able to authenticate via the “Call Me” method.
• You can generate one-time use pass codes by logging in to https://account.it.ufl.edu/ (the button at the bottom).

The easiest, and recommended, method for your 2nd factor is using the Duo app to receive a push notification. When you login, you’ll get a notification on your phone that a login was attempted that you can approve or deny. However, there are instances where a cell phone isn’t easily accessible. In those instances you can generate the one-time use pass codes at https://account.it.ufl.edu/ to have on hand or get a passcode generator from the UF Helpdesk.

If you need more information about the passcode generator please contact your local IT.

TIP: The first time you try to use the UF VPN after enrolling in multi-factor authentication can be problematic because there initially is an extremely short timeout. Usually the authentication cancels itself before you even get the push notification from DUO. The way around this is to force the VPN to use a different factor for your first login that is a bit kinder on how much time you have (like having it call you). You do this when you enter your password the the syntax of ‘[your password],phone’ to make it call your first registered phone number. Controlling how the VPN works with multi-factor authentication is explained in https://www.it.eng.ufl.edu/kb/how-do-i-use-ufs-vpn/.

After your first login with multi-factor authentication, the timeout is adjusted so you have a lot more time to receive and answer the push notification.