Enabling Google 2 - Factor Authentication
All staff at Sabinal are required to set up Google 2-Factor Authentication on their Sabinal ISD Google accounts. Existing staff have until their return to service for the 2025-2026 school year to enable this security setting. New hires will have their 2FA enabled during orientation. Please follow the instructions in the video below to set up 2-Factor Authentication.
Text versions of the instructions can be found on the Google Support page : “Turn on 2-Step Verification.”
Any staff who fail to complete the setup of Google 2-Factor Authentication by the above deadline will lose access to their Sabinal ISD account and must contact the Technology Department for assistance. If you have any other questions and still have access to your Google account, please email helpdesk@sabinalisd.net, and one of our staff members will respond.
Why this is important...
Texas schools must protect data and infrastructure systems from cyberattacks and data breaches. Assuring that the owner of an account is the only one who has access to it is a fundamental concept of cybersecurity, and this concept is difficult to guarantee without a second factor of authentication — passwords alone, even if they are changed frequently, are not enough. When someone attempts to sign in to an account with Multi-Factor Authentication enabled a second login prompt will request information that only the account owner would posses, or cue a prompt on a secondary device that only the account owner would be able to complete.
According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency:
The most common password in the country is still 123456. And even if you have a complex password, bad cyber actors unfortunately still have ways of getting past it. Using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a powerful way to protect yourself and your organization. The use of MFA on your accounts makes you 99% less likely to be hacked.
MFA is a layered approach to securing data and applications where a system requires a user to present a combination of two or more credentials to verify a user’s identity for login. MFA increases security because even if one credential becomes compromised, unauthorized users will be unable to meet the second authentication requirement and will not be able to access the targeted physical space, computing device, network, or database.
Sabinal ISD’s cybersecurity stance is that all services should be Multi-Factor Authentication capable, and staff who access these systems will be required to utilize some form of Multi-Factor Authentication. Any systems that are not directly capable of Multi-Factor Authentication will be augmented by third-party utilities to add Multi-Factor Authentication, or be configured to utilize Single Sign-On.