Harden OneDrive security with additional layers of protection
You can make your OneDrive account more secure by- Let’s see how to use each of the above-mentioned features for making your OneDrive account more secure and safe.
1] Using an unbreakable password
As always, use a strong password. This is also the preliminary step towards creating a more secure OneDrive account. Do not ever use a password that is easy to guess like 123456789, 0000000, or something related to your birth date, anniversary date, etc. Despite repeated reminders, some continue to follow this path. To begin with, create a minimum 10 digit password. The longer the length, the more secure your password is. Also, it’s advisable to use a combination of numbers, alphabets, and special characters. With OneDrive, all types of special characters (except whitespaces) are permitted to apply your brains and make a password that’s a mix of all the elements mentioned. If you worry, you won’t be able to remember your password, note it down somewhere off the computer, create a sticky note. If you find this too risky, use a password manager. You can use a local password manager but that restricts your usage to the computer where you installed the local password manager. With a cloud-based password manager, you can access your password from anywhere, irrespective of the device in use.
2] Enable Two-Step Authentication For OneDrive
Advancing a step further from the previous step, enable two-step authentication for the OneDrive account. Here’s how to go about it.
Click on your profile picture, choose ‘Account‘. When directed to a new page, go to ‘Security‘ section. Click ‘Update Security info‘. When directed to ‘Security Basics‘ page.
Select ‘More security options‘.
Here, when you select the phone number or email, you will have to type the number or email address to make sure they match the ones on record. This done, Microsoft will send you a code for one-time verification.
Enter the code to proceed further. Now, when directed to ‘Additional security options‘ page, look for ‘Two-step verification‘ heading.
When seen, click ‘Setup two step verification‘ link and follow the onscreen instructions. When done, two-step verification will an extra layer of protection to your account. Some Apps dependent on Microsoft Sign-In cannot sign in after you enabled two-step authentication. To deal with that, scroll down on the Security and Password page under Account Settings and click on Create a New App Password. You can do this for each app that won’t work after you set up two-step authentication. You will know an app is not working when it says the password is incorrect. In the Outlook desktop client, for example, you will have to replace the real password with the password you get after clicking on Create a New App Password. The same applies to Xbox and some other things. Read: How to encrypt and secure OneDrive files?
3] Setting up a Smartphone app (Microsoft Authenticator)
You can choose to use a Smartphone app to sign-in instead of entering the password. On your Smartphone launch the Microsoft Authenticator app. Choose ‘Update Security‘ info. When directed to ‘Security Settings‘ page, choose ‘more options‘ link at the bottom. Under ‘Additional Security options‘, scroll down to ‘Identity verification apps‘ section.
Next, choose ‘Set up identity verification app‘ link.
Thereafter, follow the on-screen instructions and you should be all set to use the Smartphone app for instant logins instead of your password. That’s all! Related Read: Microsoft Account Protection.
