Over the next few months you’ll notice something a little different when you log into Developer.xero.com — Multi-factor authentication (MFA). That’s because over the next year Xero is making MFA mandatory for all Xero accounts globally.

As more people around the world embrace digital technologies, the number of cyber attacks continues to increase. One of the most common types of cybercrime is phishing, designed to access your online accounts and steal your personal and business information.

At Xero, we are custodians of our customers data and we take that responsibility very seriously. We don’t just tick the boxes when it comes to security — we go above and beyond to make sure Xero is the most trusted platform for small businesses.

A global change to protect accounts

Many of you are likely already familiar with the MFA process, which goes beyond typing in a username and password, to giving you access to your account using something you know (your username and password) and something you have (your mobile device or computer).

Why are we doing it? We’re basically putting an additional bolt on the door to reduce the risk of unauthorised access to Xero accounts across the globe.

In fact, research shows that MFA can prevent up to 80% of data breaches. And we think the beauty of using your phone as an authentication method is because it’s always with you, it means you can still access your developer.xero.com or Xero account anywhere, at any time.

Introducing the new Xero Verify app

To give you fast, easy and secure access to your Xero account using MFA, we’ve created our own authenticator app called Xero Verify. It’s built using the highest security standards and gives us and you the confidence that your account access is in safe hands.

When authentication became mandatory in Australia, we saw a significant drop in account takeovers. We expect it won’t be long before other governments follow Australia’s lead. So like everything we do in security at Xero, we’re staying ahead of the game and making it mandatory for all customers globally.

Xero Verify is now available free of charge in the Apple and Google app stores. It only takes a few minutes to set up and sends a push notification to your phone when you log in, so you can just tap and go. We know you’re busy, so we’ve made it beautifully fast and easy to use.

What’s next?

1. We encourage you to download Xero Verify and opt-in to MFA when it’s available in your country. Don’t worry we’ll give you plenty of notice before it becomes mandatory
2. When MFA is available in your country you’ll see a pop up message as you log into your Xero account to access developer.xero.com
3. Simply follow the steps and you can set up MFA in just a few minutes
4. If you’re already enabled on 2SA you won’t need to do anything, you will be on the new MFA solution, unless you want to switch to using Xero Verify. Learn more

Have any questions?

If you have any questions or require additional people to be added to your account then reach out to us via api@xero.com.