Security Behavior Detection
This is an Early AccessEarly Access (EA) features are opt-in features that you can try out in your org by asking Okta Support to enable them. Additionally, the Features page in the Okta Admin Console (Settings > Features) allows Super Admins to enable and disable some EA features themselves. feature. To enable it, please contact Okta Support.
Deciding when to require a second MFA factor is a challenge to admins. Prompting for an additional factor every time can frustrate the usersIn Okta literature, we generally refer to "users" as the people who serve as Okta administrators. When we refer to "end users" we are generally referring to the people who the administrators serve. That is, those who use Okta chiclets to access their apps, but have no administrative control.; however, having a less restrictive policy increases the risk of account compromise.
To provide additional security without overburdening your end usersIn Okta literature, we generally refer to "end users" as the people who have their own Okta home page (My Applications), using chiclets to authenticate into all of their apps. End users do not have any administrative control. When we refer to "users" we are generally referring to the individual(s) who have administrative control., you can configure a Sign On policy for your organization to require additional authentication for behaviors defined as higher risk based on variance from individual users' prior sign ins. Admins can configure the system so that individual end users are only prompted for an additional MFA factor when there is a change in behavior that the adminAn abbreviation of administrator. This is the individual(s) who have access to the Okta Administrator Dashboard. They control the provisioning and deprovisioning of end users, the assigning of apps, the resetting of passwords, and the overall end user experience. Only administrators have the Administration button on the upper right side of the My Applications page. defines.
There are two components of security behavior detection. The first component is defining the behavior to track. Some examples of trackable behaviors are the following:
- Sign in from a new country, state, or city
- Sign in from a new location more than a specified distance from previous successful sign ins
- Sign in from a new device
- Sign in from a new IP address
- Sign in from a location deemed unfeasible for a user to travel to across two successive logins.
- Note that this is an Early Access feature that first requires access to the Behavioral Policy feature. To enable it, please contact Okta Support.
The second component is to specify what action to take when there is a change in trackable behavior for an end user. Some examples of actions to take are the following:
- Permit access
- Require the end user to validate with an additional multifactor authentication factor
- Set the session lifetime
Note: At this time, you cannot deny access if a behavior condition is selected in a Sign On policy rule.
Additionally, you can reset the behavior profile for an end user. This reset clears all tracked behavior history for the end user, but continues tracking new behavior.
Defining a behavior does not trigger any actions. You must include the new behavior in a Sign On policy in order for behavior detection to take effect.
Part 1 – Defining Behaviors
Navigate to Security > Behavior Detection.
Behavior types are based on changes in location, device, or the IP address from which Okta is accessed. You can have several named behaviors for each of these behavior types. For example, one location behavior can be based on the country from which the sign on originates, and another behavior can be based on the city from which the sign on originates. Either or both of these behaviors can be used in sign on policies; in this example, you can prompt for a second MFA factor when there is a change of country, but permit access when there is a change of city.
The following table defines these behaviors.
| Behavior Type | Name | Description | Defaults and Customization |
| Location | New City | A city that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. | Checked against the last 20 successful sign ins. You can change the number to check against. |
| New State | A state or region that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. | Checked against the last 15 successful sign ins. You can change the number of successful sign ins to check against. | |
| New Country | A country that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. | Checked against the last 10 successful sign ins. You can change the number of successful sign ins to check against. | |
| New Geo-Location | A location outside a specified radius that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. | Checked against the last 20 successful sign ins for locations that are outside a 20 kilometer radius of the locations of prior, successful sign ins. You can change the number of successful sign ins to check against, specify the radius size, and define the location by longitude and latitude. | |
| Device | New Device | A device that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. A device is based on the clientEssentially, a client is anything that talks to the Okta service. Within the traditional client-server model, Okta is the server. The client might be an agent, an Okta mobile app, or a browser plugin. ; therefore, changing the browser is considered new device | Checked against the last 20 successful sign ins. You can change the number of successful sign ins to check against. |
| IP | New IP | An IP address that has not been the source of a prior, successful sign in. | Checked against the last 50 successful sign ins. You can change the number of successful sign ins to check against. |
| Velocity | Velocity |
A measurement of velocity used to identify suspicious logins. Velocity is evaluated based on the distance and time elapsed between two subsequent user logins. |
Checked against the geographic distance and time elapsed between two successive logins. Defaults to 805 km/h (500 mph). |
In addition to these predefined behaviors, you can select Add Behavior to add a custom behavior. You can add any kind of behavior: location, device, or IP. The fields are the same as in the predefined behaviors.
Similar screens appear for a behavior type if you are adding or editing. The following screenshot shows a Geolocation behavior edit.
You can only use Active behaviors in security policies. You can leave a behavior as active if it is not used. Active means available for use in a sign on policy rule.
Part 2 – Define Action to Take
Navigate to Security > Authentication, and then select Sign On. Either create a new rule or edit an existing rule.
Add one of the behaviors to the And behavior is box, shown below.
To add a behavior, you can start typing a behavior name and a drop-down list of all matching defined behaviors displays from which you can select, as shown below.
When selected, the behavior name appears as shown below. To remove a behavior, click the X next to the name.
Note: If you add multiple behaviors, they are OR conditions. In the example show below, the behavior is defined as either a new city OR a new country.
When added, these behaviors are evaluated along with any other items defined in the rule. Specify what to do when the conditions are met in the Then access is section, as shown below.
Note: If you included an IP address or a network zone in this screen and you also included a behavior that contains IP address specification, all these criteria must be met to trigger the rule.
Resetting End User Behavior
You can reset the behavior profile for a single end user to clear all tracked behavior history, but continue tracking new behavior. To reset a behavior profile, navigate to Directory > People, and then click on the user whose history you want to reset. In the screen that opens, select More Actions and then select Reset Behavior Profile from the drop-down menu, as shown below. You are prompted for a confirmation. You cannot undo this action.
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