Office 365 - Transition to Modern Authentication
Microsoft announced an upcoming security update that requires all Office 365 users to make a change on every device and email software that connects with UWM email, including all email applications on your mobile devices and tablets, desktop computers, laptops, and University line of business applications. To improve security and ensure usage of multifactor authentication (MFA), UWM will be fully moving to utilize Modern Authentication for Office 365 services and will disable support for Basic Authentication on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.
Why is this happening?
Modern Authentication and Basic Authentication are terms for connection methods between a client (for example, your laptop or your phone) and the Office 365 servers. Currently, UWM's Office 365 environment allows users to authenticate with Office 365 services using both Basic Authentication as well as Modern Authentication.
Additionally, Microsoft will be retiring Basic Authentication and has encouraged the full adoption of Modern Authentication. Basic Authentication does not offer optimal security as it allows UWM users to bypass multifactor authentication despite being enrolled and opens your Office 365 mailbox to cyberattacks like credential stuffing, brute force and password spray.
What are the impacts of this change?
There are many different email/calendar applications which support Modern Authentication. Select the specific application you wish to use below for specific setup guides.
- Outlook on the web
- Outlook for Windows (2013 and newer)
- Outlook for Mac (2013 and newer)
- Outlook for iOS
- Outlook for Android
- macOS Mail and Calendar (Mojave and later)
- iOS Mail and Calendar (iOS 11.x and newer)
What will happen if I do not switch to an app that uses Modern Authentication?




Additional Technical Information
- Since Basic Authentication is not protected by multifactor authentication, if your ePanther credentials are compromised, it can be used to access your mailbox or to send email from your account.
- All native Microsoft 365 applications support Modern Authentication. A few third-party client applications support Modern Authentication, including: Mac Mail and iOS Mail.
- Outlook 2010 and older do not support Modern Authentication.
- Android (Google) Mail and Calendar do not support Modern Authentication.
- macOS Mail and Calendar on macOS versions older than 10.14 do not support Modern Authentication.
- iOS Mail and Calendar on iOS versions older than 11 do not support Modern Authentication.
- Microsoft has already discontinued support for Basic Authentication with the Outlook REST API.
- OAuth 2.0 is the industry standard protocol for authorization and it is possible to use as a method for Modern Authentication in third-party apps that provide support for it, such as Thunderbird.