Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

Hero now recommends that all customers start enabling Two Factor Authentication (2FA) on their accounts to provide an added layer of security to their personal details, logins and account information.  If 2FA is not enabled on an account then if your details are compromised in some way either via your personal computer or your VOIP equipment or applications then a hacker can then potentially access your account causing further disruption and fraudulent activities.

We will soon begin to enable 2FA by default on accounts however we recommend that users start enabling 2FA on their existing account by following the simple instructions below.

Step 1 - Login to the customer portal and go into the Details page under the Account tab

Click the link below to take you directly to the Details page in the customer portal:

https://portal.hero.co.nz/account/details/

Step 2 - At the bottom of the details page you will see an option for Two Factor Authentication (2FA).  Simply select 'Enabled (for all users) - Email Verification' option.  This will force all users on the account to use 2FA.  Optionally you can also tick the checkbox to prompt only once from the same location.  This means you will not be prompted for 2FA again if you login from the same IP address as a previous login.  If you want the highest level of security however and for 2FA to always be requested on logins then leave this checkbox unticked.

Step 3 - Click on the Update Details button and then logout of the portal.  On your next login you should be prompted for 2FA to login and the email address listed in the Details page above will receive an email with the one-off verification code that must be entered when logging in.

NOTE: If you do not wish to enable 2FA for ALL users/logins on the account then you may select 'Enabled (account login only)' from the 2FA dropdown selection menu.  This means that 2FA will only be requested when logging in with the main 8 digit account number and not for other users.

Enabling 2FA for individual users

If you wish to Enable 2FA but only for specific logins/users on your account then you will need to enable this in the Logins Page.  Here are the steps to enable 2FA for a specific login/user on the account:

Step 1 - Login to the customer portal and go to the Logins page under the account tab

Click the link below to take you directly to the Logins page in the customer portal:

https://portal.hero.co.nz/account/users/

Step 2 - You will see a list of your current logins/users for the account and a column showing if 2FA is enabled for that user.  Click on the user name to edit the user and you will see an option for Two Factor Authentication (2FA).  Simply select 'Enabled - Email Verification' option.  This will force this user to use 2FA when logging in.  Optionally you can also tick the checkbox to prompt only once from the same location.  This means the user will not be prompted for 2FA again if you login from the same IP address as a previous login.  If you want the highest level of security however and for 2FA to always be requested on logins then leave this checkbox unticked.

Step 3 - Click on the 'Update User Details' button. On that user's next login they should be prompted for 2FA to login and they will receive an email with the one-off verification code that must be entered when logging in.

API Users

One side effect of enabling 2FA across the whole account will be that any user/logins you are using for API access to the account will also be prompted for 2FA so in this case you will want to select 'Enabled (account login only)' in the Account/Details page and then leave 2FA disabled for the API login/user but enable 2FA for all other users on the account.  This way only the API user will not require 2FA to access the platforms.