Office of Information Security

Modern Authentication at Northeastern

If you check your email from an email program that uses an out-of-date login method, you’ll need to take action before Oct. 31, 2022, to ensure continued access to your Northeastern email on all of your devices. Please note: Outlook users won’t need to take action if they have the most recent update of the app on their device or if they use Outlook on the Web. Please review the below information about email clients and their compatibility with the new login method for further details.

Beginning Oct. 1, 2022, Microsoft began enforcing modern authentication when you access your Northeastern email account through Microsoft 365 (M365). While most email accounts at Northeastern are already using modern authentication, many are still accessible without the protection of two-step authentication (Duo), leaving them highly vulnerable to being compromised. The transition to modern authentication will enhance account security and decrease the amount of compromised accounts and phishing emails throughout Northeastern’s network.

Securing Your Northeastern Email

With this transition, ITS now requires two-step authentication when you access your Northeastern email account through M365. This change ensures that you access your email securely from all your devices.

To learn more about this security update and what to expect, please refer to the FAQs.

System Requirements

To update your M365 information on your device, your device’s system must meet the following requirements.

If your device doesn’t meet these system requirements, you’ll need to update to a supported operating system and app version. The best way to ensure continuous access to your email is to install Outlook or use Outlook on the Web to access your email account.

Mac and PC computers

  • Microsoft Office 2016 or higher for Windows or macOS
  • macOS native mail client on systems running macOS 10.14+ (Mojave) or newer
    (Note: macOS 10.14 is no longer supported by Northeastern or Apple but will technically work with modern authentication. Before upgrading, you may want to review system checks to ensure a smooth macOS upgrade.)
  • Use of a modern, up-to-date web browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge for web-based access to email and M365

    Mobile devices

    • Latest version of the Microsoft Outlook app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store
    • iOS 13.0 or higher native mail client
    • Android 9.0 or higher

    Email Configuration Guidance

    If you check your mail from an email program that uses an out-of-date login method, you’ll need to take one of two actions before Oct. 31, 2022, to ensure continued access to your Northeastern email:

    • Reconfigure your email client (for clients that support modern authentication). Please review the information below about email clients that do support modern authentication and their specific configuration requirements.
    • Switch to another email client (for clients that don’t support modern authentication). Email clients that aren’t listed below (e.g., Eudora) don’t support modern authentication. This will require users to switch to another email client that does support modern authentication.

    When enforcement begins this October, email clients that use the out-of-date login method will stop working. For additional support around email configuration, please contact the IT Service Desk.

    Modern Authentication-Supported Email Clients

    Outlook

    If you use any of the following email clients to access Northeastern email, no action is needed on your part:

    • Outlook for Windows 2016 and later
    • Outlook for Mac 2016 and later
    • Outlook for Mobile
    • Webmail (https://outlook.northeastern.edu)

    Apple Mail

    All supported versions of macOS (10.15 and later) support modern authentication. However, systems that were upgraded from previous versions may still be using an older configuration.

    • Mac OS 10.14 (Mojave) and newer: The Mail and Calendar apps that come with Mac OS 10.14 (Mojave) and Mac OS 10.15 (Catalina) will continue to work. Depending on how you originally set up your Mac, you may need to delete and re-add your email/calendar account profile to avoid a service interruption.
    • Mac OS 10.13 and older: The built-in Mail and Calendar apps that came with Mac OS 10.13 or older won’t work. To continue using those apps, you’ll need to upgrade your Mac OS, or you can switch to using Outlook for Mac or Outlook on the Web.

    Thunderbird

    To comply with the modern authentication requirement, Thunderbird users should make sure their Thunderbird email client is up-to-date. The most recent version of Thunderbird supports modern authentication.

    iOS Mail

    All supported versions of iOS (11 and later) support modern authentication. However, systems that were upgraded from previous versions may still be using an older configuration.

    • iOS/iPadOS 11 or newer: The Mail and Calendar apps that come with iOS 11 or newer will continue to work; however, you may need to delete and re-add your email/calendar account to avoid a service interruption.
    • iOS/iPadOS 10 and older: The built-in Mail and Calendar apps for iOS 10 and older won’t work’ it’s recommended that you upgrade your device to the latest version of iOS or switch to Outlook for iOS to continue accessing your account.

    Additional Support

    Can’t get to your email?

    If you’re unable to access your Northeastern email after reconfiguration, you have multiple options for checking email until the problem is resolved:

    Resources and help