GovBuddy Account Security and Two Factor Authentication (2FA) Codes

Effective April 3rd 2021 GovBuddy has upgraded all GovBuddy User accounts to include new Collaboration Features and new Mandatory Security Features.

Collaboration Features Included:

GovBuddy Issues introduces collaboration around the work you do daily. Now you can create a topic for your GovBuddy Issue, invite your collaborators, add the elected representatives, their staff, and the committee staff you need to speak with all into an issue along with the bill(s) you are working on. GovBuddy Issues have been built in a manner so that only you and the collaborators you invite can access the data you store in GovBuddy. 

Security Features Included:

The new GovBuddy Security Features are Mandatory and cannot be disabled by a GovBuddy User.

These new features include:

1. A Mandatory Two Factor Authentication (2FA) code be entered every time a GovBuddy user signs into GovBuddy.com with a new computer / web browser. 
2. Encryption at rest in a SOC 2 compliant hosting environment.
3. TLS 1.2+ or higher encryption from a GovBuddy Users web browser. 

These upgrades were the largest in the over 10 year history of GovBuddy. This required GovBuddy to drop support for all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer including version 11 or earlier. GovBuddy supports the latest versions of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. 

* Important - GovBuddy 2FA codes are designed to create a session that remains active on your computer + web browser when you sign in. If you switch computers or web browsers you will need to sign in again with a 2FA code. 

GovBuddy 2FA Required Too Often:

We have had instances of customers who find they are routinely asked to sign into GovBuddy from the same computer + web browser without having logged out or having signed in on another computer. They are then prompted to enter a 2FA code at sign in. This is most likely a serious breach of your account caused by someone using your GovBuddy account credentials without your knowledge. We recommend changing your password immediately.

Customer Feedback:

We have heard from some of our GovBuddy customers that they find GovBuddy 2FA codes are disrupting to their established business practices. We are aware that this change might be disruptive but found it a necessary trade off to bring innovative new collaboration features to our customers. 

How to Disable GovBuddy 2FA Codes Permanently: 

If your organization requires custom security that is more permissive than GovBuddy.com provides we do offer custom implementations of GovBuddy. These are expensive to implement typically costing more than 1,000 times the cost of a GovBuddy Individual Plan. If your organization absolutely needs to disable 2FA then this is the only route that is offered at this time.

Feel free to contact info@advocacy.biz for more information about a custom implementation of GovBuddy that can operate as a standalone website or is designed to work with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or any other CRM you have today.