2-factor authentication is the process in which an additional piece of information is requested and required, along with your username and password, to sign in to your account.

In this article, we review how to enable 2-factor authentication via email. However, eFront supports two more methods of 2-factor authentication: Google Authenticator and SMS-based authentication. These are not mutually exclusive. They can run side by side, and if all three services are activated by the administrator, the end user will be able to select their preferred one.

To set up 2-factor authentication via email:

1. Sign in to your portal as an Administrator.
2. Go to System settings (1) > Security (2) > 2-factor authentication (3).
3. Set Using email to Enabled (4).
4. Click Save (5) to confirm your changes.

After enabling 2-factor authentication via email, users can visit their profile page to activate 2-factor authentication. To do this, they should:

1. Expand the right drop down menu (1) and select My account (2).
2. Select Profile (3) and click the Enable 2-factor authentication link (4).
3. In the new window, the user needs to set the Authentication type to Email (5) and then click on Activate (6).

The next time the user tries to sign in, they will be presented with an additional field to input the 6-digit code sent to their inbox.