Supported MFA Factors for China-based Users

Last Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Overview

When enabling MFA for users in China, what are the supported factors that should be used? Some factors like SMS and push notifications can be unreliable.

Solution

The recommendation is to use the One-time Password (TOTP) factor in situations like this. This factor relies on Time-based OTPs that can be generated in the user's device rather than having to transport them. Users can utilize apps like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Authy (among others) to generate the OTP. This method is reliable in places where other forms of communication are not.