2FA Comes to the Mountain
by Rylie L
To kick off the 2026 school year at Mountain Range High School, a new district wide security feature was set in place: 2 factor authentication.
Prior to the current school year, students were able to access their school account anywhere at any time. Due to the increased amount of cyber attacks every year, the administrators at Mountain Range and Adams 12 took it upon themselves to make an effort to protect students and their personal information. This means adding a phone number to receive a code in order to log in to their accounts while being away from school.
2 factor authentication is being used to further prevent cyber attacks and identity theft. Mountain Range teacher Mr. Simpson stated that, “schools are prime targets for cyber attacks, adding an extra layer of security is a smart idea.” To support his claim, statistics show that, “A startling majority — 82% — of K-12 schools experienced a cyber incident between July 2023 and December 2024” according to k12dive.com.
Students, on the other hand, express different opinions. Jacob H, an 11th grader at Mountain Range, expressed his frustration with the bit. “I think It’s inconvenient, I haven’t been able to do my homework at all since they added it.”This is because setting up 2FA is only accessible at school. Students are also discussing how their teachers did not know it was enforced until they asked for help. This further sparked the annoyance amongst users.
Jacob H was asked if the issue had been resolved. “My teachers have talked about it more, and they made it easier with the new email that explained it better.” He followed up with, “I just think it’s annoying how we can’t use our phones at school but nobody knows how to set up 2FA and you can’t do it without your phone.”
Overall, administrators have ultimately decided that 2FA is a crucial part of cyber security. Despite the extra steps and complaints, they think it will prevent any dangerous situations and criminal activity. “I think it is annoying having to do extra things and constantly need your phone number to be able to sign in, but if it helps keep our info private then I think it’s a good thing to have,” said Mountain Range teacher, Mr. Simpson. This means it isn’t leaving any time soon, and Adams 12 will further push for a more secure, private system.
