Dear Malone Students, Faculty, and Staff:
The Information Technologies office has been working on moving all of our servers and systems over to a new Active Directory service and SingleSignOn [SSO], i.e., one password, many systems. This service will pave the way for secure, safe, and reliable access to Malone systems for the next twenty plus years. Our old directory, malone.int, has lasted about 25 years!
If you are downloading Microsoft Office for your personal computers or using Office 365's cloud applications, you are already using the new SSO system. This is based on Microsoft's AzureAD technology. Starting sometime in December all University systems which use SSO (and even a few new ones) will begin to use the new SSO.
Current (Old) SSO page
New SSO Page
The new SSO page is available at: https://login.microsoftonline.com/ . As of this writing it looks something like these:
or
or
once you type in your malone email address, the page will change to this:
So what? Do I need to do anything?
We are so glad you asked. Yes. Please sign into https://login.microsoftonline.com/ with your malone.edu email address and password. You will be asked to set up your password reset mechanisms. The new service offers several different methods of password reset:
- question and answer pairs
- text message to a registered cell phone
- authenticator app
- rescue email
Set this up now so you aren't forced to when it is inconveniant and you need to access some service in December or January.
Multi-Factor Authentication [MFA]
We will be requiring multi-factor authentication [MFA] for all active students, faculty, and staff. MFA is an important security enhancement. It helps ensure that your Malone data and personal information stored in Malone's systems stays secure from would-be attackers.
The most common form of MFA is a sms/text verification. When required, the system will send you a text message with a code in it. This is a mechanism that many of you are already familiar with if you do online banking or another secured service. This will not be an every-time-you sign-in thing, but will be required when connecting to Malone services from a new machine or if you are connecting from a new physical location.
An alternative, optional, and slightly more secure form of MFA authenticaion is to use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator (iOS and Android) which will generate a rotating code that - when you are asked/prompted for it - you will type in when signing into a Malone service. You will need to do this when you sign into a Malone service using a new web browser or device or perhaps when your location or network has changed significantly.
Timeline for the Change
The Information Technologies department will begin transitioning some minor services in the next couple weeks (Mid November start). It is very likely that the next time you sign into the IT Help Desk system, you will need to sign in through the new SSO service. All SSO-able [sic] online services will be switched by the end of January 2023.
