Password Policies and Two-Factor Authentication — Make Your Account More Secure

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes | Target users: IT Admins, Supervisors

Explore best practices for increasing your account’s security. Password Policies allow you to define the required complexity of passwords. Two-Factor Authentication requires users to complete a second verification step when logging in to the VCC Live application. And using the combination of the two, your account will be even more secure.

In this lesson, you will learn how to:

• Create and set up password policies
• Change your Password
• Enable and Disable 2FA
• Disable 2FA for a specific user

1. Password Policies

A Password Policy is a set of rules, conditions and minimum requirements for the creation of passwords in productname.label. It ensures a decent level of data security for accessing the software, which is crucial for all parties involved in using productname.label. The main goal of password policies is to encourage users to create reliable, secure passwords and then store and use them accordingly.

1.1 Password Policy Options

You may choose a predefined password policy (it can be normal, complex and very complex) or you can create your own rules for setting up passwords.

Conditions that need to be adjusted for a password policy are:

• Minimum character length of the password
• Minimum number of upper case characters
• Minimum number of special characters
• Minimum number of numeric characters
• Duration of password expiry in days (Password aging)
• Number of allowed login attempts
• User lockout duration in minutes
• Check whether you want to display the number of login attempts left for the user
• Enable login override, meaning whether the system should terminate other sessions when logging in

1.2 Changing Password Policy in productname.label

Choosing the right password policy for your company needs is of key importance – whether it must adhere to your business standards or may suffice other needs, the highly versatile password policy editor of productname.label gets you covered. Choose a predefined policy setting from the list or create your own set of rules.

To Select a Predefined Password Policy

1. From the productname.label menu, select call_center.menu.label > settings.menu.label, then select the security.tab.label tab.
2. Select a pre-defined setting from the selected-profile.label.value drop-down list. It can be normal, complex and very complex.
3. Press field_change.button.label.

To Create a Customized Password Policy

1. From the productname.label menu, select call_center.menu.label > settings.menu.label, then select the security.tab.label tab.
2. Select Custom from the selected-profile.label.value drop-down list.
3. Set the desired values in each relevant field, then press field_change.button.label.

1.3 Changing your Password

Once a password policy is set up, users can create their passwords when registering their account to productname.label. Naturally, it is possible to change passwords later on.

To Change your Password

1. From the productname.label menu, select userProfileModule.menu.label > pass.label.value.
2. In the old_password.label.value field, enter your old password.
3. In the password.label and password2.label.value fields, enter the new password you wish to use.

Tip: Hover your mouse over the to find out the password policy, including what type and how many characters are needed.

2. Two-step Authentication

Two-step authentication (2FA) or two-step verification is an authentication method of confirming a user’s claimed identity by using a combination of two different factors. This can be something they know (1), something they have (2) or something they are (3).

A common example for two-step authentication is where a mobile phone is used as a second factor. In such case:

1. The user wants to log in to an app, so they enter the password (something they know [1] ).
2. The application sends a numeric code to the user’s mobile device either via SMS or an authenticator app (therefore, a mobile device is something a user has [2] ).
3. The user enters the numeric code to the application.
4. The application grants access to the user.

2.1 What are the Benefits of 2FA?

The classic authentication approach for web application logins requires to enter a username and a password. However, since most people tend to choose poorly encrypted passwords which are also frequently reused, hacking, phishing and leaked databases still affect millions of users worldwide.

With two-factor authentication, users add a second factor to their authentication process, ensuring a secure flow logging into their chosen application.

2.2 How to Set up 2FA for VCC Live

As a secure two-factor authentication method, productname.label uses the Google™ Authenticator app. Google Authenticator generates a random code used to verify your identity when you’re logging into productname.label, therefore providing an extra layer of security to your account.

To Enable Two-factor Authentication

1. In productname.label: From the productname.label menu, select userProfileModule.menu.label > twofa_disabled.label.value.
2. On your smartphone: Open App Store® (on Apple® iPhone®) or Play Store™ (on Android™), search for Google™ Authenticator, download, install, and open the application.
3. Using the application, scan the QR code on your computer’s display. A 6-digit number should appear on your smartphone’s screen.
4. In productname.label: Enter the 6-digit number in the text field, then press field_change.button.label.

Warning: When twofactor.label.value is enabled, users cannot sign in to productname.label without using the Google™ Authenticator application. Please take this into consideration when changing smartphone.

Warning: We recommend using a Wi-Fi connection for downloading the application to avoid data traffic costs.

To Disable Two-factor Authentication

In case you want to reset the authentication process, so the user would need to provide only the password, you can set this up by the following steps.

1. In productname.label: From the productname.label menu, select userProfileModule.menu.label > twofa_enabled.label.value.
2. On your smartphone: Open the Google™ Authenticator application to receive a 6-digit number.
3. In productname.label: Enter the 6-digit number in the text field, then press field_change.button.label.

To Disable Two-factor Authentication for a Specific User

It is possible to disable two-factor authentication only for a selected number of users.

1. From the productname.label menu, select users_menu.menu.label > users.menu.label.
2. Select a user.
3. In the codec.default.label settings pane, unmark the twofactor.label.value checkbox.

Tip: If a user cannot access the Google™ Authenticator application, for example, if a smartphone is lost or broken, a user with administrator rights can disable Two-factor authentication for any specific user.

Congratulations!

You’ve just learned how to set up password policies and Two-Factor Authentication in productname.label.

Ready for the next lesson? You’ll learn how to set up Single-Sign On.
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