Microsoft Entra ID supports a wide range of authentication methods, from legacy password-based approaches to passwordless alternatives. These methods fall into the following categories:

Something you know such as a password or PIN.

Something you have such as a registered device, security key, or authenticator app.

Something you are such as Biometric data, including fingerprints or facial recognition.

Ideally, passwordless methods would be implemented since they remove the need for a password entirely. Instead, we can authenticate users using a combination of device possession and a biometric or PIN.

However, not all organizations can immediately move to passwordless authentication. That's where multifactor authentication , or MFA, can provide a intermediate security layer.…