Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is now available to self-enroll for all faculty, staff, and students. If you support faculty or are unavailable to sign up for MFA during your assigned time, we encourage you to enroll early.
What is MFA?
UCSC is taking meaningful action to help students, faculty, and staff safeguard themselves against cybercrime. Multi-Factor Authentication, also known as two-step or 2-factor authentication, adds a second layer of protection to your UCSC account in addition to your username and password. This extra factor prevents anyone but you from logging in to your account.
Timeline
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All staff at the Scotts Valley Center - March 4 - March 31
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Anyone with a UCSC account can sign up to use MFA - Starting now!
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All faculty - April 2 - May 20
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All staff - May 21 - July 29
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All students - Sept. 3 - Oct. 21
Reasons to Sign Up Early
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It's easy! Signing up to use MFA takes about 5 minutes. Waiting until the last minute might leave you with questions about how to access UCSC Gold systems and wait times at the ITS Support Center are likely to be longer than usual.
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Early sign up means you can be a support to others in your groups as they transition to MFA.
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You can win a gift card! All enrolled participants are automatically entered in a bi-weekly drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
How to sign up for MFA
STEP 1: Device Overview
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Choose the devices you want to enroll in MFA. Go to the device overview page to review options https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/device-overview.html.
STEP 2: Enroll Devices
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We recommend you enroll a minimum of two devices to ensure you'll always be able to authenticate. Follow the enrollment instructions for those devices https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/enroll.html.
STEP 3: Authenticate with MFA
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Once you sign up, you will begin using MFA to access UCSC Gold systems. Go to the authenticate page to review how to authenticate https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/authenticate.html.
Need Assistance?
Walk-in support with MFA enrollment and general questions is available. Here’s the schedule and locations: https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/events.html
If you’d like to learn more about MFA, visit https://its.ucsc.edu/mfa/index.html for additional information.
If you have questions, please submit a support ticket with the ITS Support Center using the keyword MFA at https://itrequest.ucsc.edu, or by email help@ucsc.edu or telephone 459-HELP(4357).
