Tuesday, August 2, 2016

ArchPass, the University of Georgia’s two-factor authentication service, is getting an upgrade.

EITS is participating in a two-month pilot of the new phone-enabled two-factor authentication service, called Archpass, with plans to launch the service to all current ArchPass users in October.

Currently, any University faculty or staff member accessing sensitive or restricted data must be provisioned an ArchPass hard token, which generates random, six-digit passcodes users must input along with their MyID password to gain access to certain systems.

The new Archpass service will offer these users multiple methods for receiving passcodes and authenticating to systems.

Current ArchPass users will enroll in Archpass via an email invitation. Once enrolled, users can opt to receive a phone call or text message with a passcode, or they can authenticate by receiving a push notification on their smartphone.

EITS staff and select campus users will pilot the new service starting in August.

All current ArchPass users will receive invites to enroll in Archpass in October. Once the service is launched campus-wide, The Office of Information Security will run parallel VPN groups so current ArchPass users will be able to test Archpass at their convenience.

ArchPass users are advised to keep their current hard tokens at this time; they will be asked to turn them in at a later date.

Additional information about Archpass can be found at archpass.uga.edu.

ArchPass users with further questions may contact Ben Myers, Interim Associate CIO for University Information Security, at bmyers@uga.edu.