Article Intended For
Penn State University employees, students, and other affiliates who want to add a backup multifactor authentication (MFA) method to their Penn State Account.
Introduction
Penn State recommends having more than one authentication method available whenever possible. This will help you maintain access to your Penn State Account if your primary device is lost, damaged, replaced, or unavailable.
When choosing a backup method, consider using a method that is available on a different physical device from your primary method.
Things to know:
- You can have up to 10 MFA methods enrolled with your Penn State Account.
- Your primary and backup methods do not need to be the same type. For example, you can use Microsoft Authenticator or a synced passkey on your smartphone and Windows Hello on your personal Windows laptop.
- Don't rely on the same device. Having multiple methods on the same physical device is a single point of failure. For example, if you use Microsoft Authenticator number matching and a device-bound passkey stored in Microsoft Authenticator, while those are 2 separate methods, they are both unavailable if your phone is lost, damaged, or otherwise not available.
- Synced passkeys ensure that your passkey can be used across multiple devices. For example, if you have an iPhone and an iPad, you can sync your passkey to Apple Passwords where it will be available to use on both devices.
- To learn more, see the following KB article: MFA: What is a Passkey?
Article Body
Choosing a Backup Authentication Method
Choose a backup MFA method that will still be available if you cannot use your primary device. Having multiple authentication methods on the same device will prevent you from logging in if that device is lost, damaged, or unavailable.
For example, you can have a passkey on your smartphone and Windows Hello or Touch ID on your laptop. You can sync a passkey so that it is available on your smartphone and tablet. You can obtain a FIDO2 security key and keep it on a keychain.
See the following KB article to see which method(s) may work best for you: MFA: Which MFA Option Should I Choose?
How to Add a Backup Authentication Method
- visit https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info/ and sign in using your Penn State Account credentials
- select + Add sign-in method
- select the method you want to add
- follow the appropriate KB article for your selected method to complete enrollment
MFA Enrollment KB Articles:
MFA: Multifactor Authentication (MFA) Help and Resources List