It’s almost summer! Is anyone else surprised by how quickly spring went?

I haven’t been a student for a while, but I’ve had Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out For Summer” stuck in my head lately.

In this issue, you’ll need to stay in school a bit longer while we talk through security in Hospitality HouseKeeper. Some new options (2-factor authentication, anyone?) and some good-to-remembers.

And then maybe school will be out forever. Probably not, though; there’s always more to learn.

Feature Spotlight

Two-Factor Authentication and Single Sign On

Two-step verification (also called two-factor authentication) adds a second layer of security to your account by requiring you to enter a temporary code in addition to your password when logging in. In HHK, this code can be generated in two ways:

  • Using an authenticator app (like Google Authenticator or the Authenticator browser extension)
  • Having the code emailed to you

Each user will set up their 2-factor option in the same box where passwords are reset.  Managers can decide whether using 2-factor will be mandatory for all users.

screenshot showing the HHK password reset box, where you can now also set up two step verification

Single Sign On (SSO) is a way for a user to log in to any of several software systems using only one username and password. Hospital house staff may use a single sign on option for many of the hospital systems they use. Hospitality HouseKeeper can now be one of those systems.

SSO is complicated to set up, and the HHK team will need to talk to the IT team of a house or hospital to set everything up properly. If you think your house or hospital would be interested in SSO, let us know.

Our Suspicious Server 

Some of you have been encountering issues with logging in to HHK. In order to keep your data safe, our server may block IP addresses that it believes are acting suspiciously.

What triggers getting blocked:

  • Approximately 10 failed logins within an hour.
  • These logins could have been on the Forum, Training Site, or your House Site–they’re all linked.
Signs you’ve been blocked by the server:
  • It’s location based.  You can access HHK fine at the office, but not at home (or vice versa)
  • The login page isn’t even loading
If you think you’ve been blocked, tell us and we can let the server know that it doesn’t need to worry–you’re not a nefarious knave, trying to hack in.

Limiting at-home access to HHK

Did you know you can block users from logging in from home?  Based on their security groups, you can set some users to only log in at the house. This way, front desk staff could be blocked from logging in at home, but managers still can (when something inevitably goes wrong on a Sunday).

As with everything in this issue, let us know if you want to set this up, and we can send you more information.