This article provides information on configuring and managing the QA authentication module as well as advanced QA authentication through the use of custom questions. For an overview and basics to authentication refer to the following article, Authentication Basics.
QA Authentication
QA Authentication is managed from the Authentication tab under the Questions sub-tab as shown below.
From here you can manage four distinct areas:
- The actual questions presented to the end users
- Validation and verification settings
- Import preconfigured questions and answers
- Reset end user answers
Each is detailed below.
Questions
This is where the actual questions an end user sees can be configured. By default the following questions below are configured during installation.
The following actions are available:
- ability to wipe a single question from all end users
- ability to delete a question entirely, all end user profiles will have this questions removed instantly
- ability to add more questions
Adding more questions
To add additional questions simply hit the Add a new question link which will add an empty Question in the list as below.
Enter the new question and hit save. This will instantly be available to all end users from their My Account page to be answered.
Question Settings
The next thing that can be configured are validation and verification details from the Settings section.
The settings are:
- Correct Answers Required for Authentication: number of answers required for successful authentication, for example you could show 10 questions but only require 5 of them to be answered correctly
- Questions to Ask in Authentication: number of questions to show during authentication process, for example show 10 questions
- Answers Required to Activate Profile: how many questions need to be answered to successfully activate user. For example default value is 2, users cannot use the system until 2 or more questions have been answered
- Maximum Custom Questions: how many custom questions to use. This is detailed further down
- Minimum/ Maximum Answer Size: the length of each answer, defaulted to minimum 5 characters and maximum 25 characters
- User Wizard Setup Mode: here you can set the mode for the enrollment wizard. By default questions will be required in the wizard, here you can change these settings.
Required if not complete: meaning the user will be prompted to complete the questions.
Optional if not complete: User is prompted to complete but is able to skip this step.
Disabled: User will not be prompted for questions during wizard.
Import Questions
The Import section allows configuration of Questions and Answers using a CSV file that is configured to include the user's account name and answers for the questions that have been set.
The options on the this page set the details Access Managers requires to be able to read the CSV file correctly:
Type: Sets the source file type, CSV or Access Manager 1.1, this can change which options are displayed below.
Directory: Select which user directory the answers are to be applied to.
Character Set: Specify which character set the file uses.
Field Separator: Specify which character is used to separate each element.
Record Separator: Specify the separator for each new user.
Source: Specify the source location of the file for import.
Advanced Actions
The final section on this page allows the administrators to wipe all answers currently set by all end users. By clicking the link below all answers will be wiped requiring users to answer all questions again.
This should only be used under extreme circumstances as it can cause major disruption to your business and inconvenience to your end users.
Advanced Custom Questions
Nervepoint Access Manager extends QA authentication by allowing end users to define their own questions in addition to the administrator defined ones increasing the level of security. From the Settings page simply configure Maximum Custom Questions setting. By default this is set to 2 so end users can set 2 additional questions unique to each user that only they know and only they know the answer to.
End User View
Your end users can configure answers to the administrator defined questions as well as custom questions from the Your Answer page.
Available questions are on the left and custom questions to the right. To add a custom question end users enter their own question and answer in the input fields and then hit Add.
This will make the new question and answer appear on the right of the Your Answers section.
Once the appropriate number of questions have been answered the user will be able to use the QA authentication module if configured in any authentication flow.
