So my company decided to migrate office suite and email etc to Microsoft365. Whatever. But for 2FA login they decided to disable the option to choose “any authenticator” and force Microsoft Authenticator on the (private) phones of both employees and volunteers. Is there any valid reason why they would do this, like it’s demonstrably safer? Or is this a battle I can pick to shield myself a little from MS?

  • @englislanguage
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    -17 months ago

    If it is just TOTP, you can use any other TOTP app, such as Aegis or FreeOTP+.

    And no, Microsoft cannot be trusted on not doing anything bad. The app is full of trackers and has an excessive list of permissions it “requires”.

    For comparison, Aegis and FreeOTP+ work without trackers and way less permissions.

    Microsoft has a long track record of leaks. Just naming the 2 most prominent:

    1. Microsoft Edge leaks every single URL to Microsoft servers (source)
    2. There are lots of reports that Microsoft had their general key stolen and not even notify it for months. It is unclear who had acces to that key. This is putting anyone at risk who uses any Microsoft product. (See for example here)