When users are added to a new security policy, they may be prompted to provide and verify a secondary email address during the sign-in flow. This guide explains how Okta uses secondary emails to enhance account recovery resilience and outlines configuration options to tailor this experience to the organization’s needs.
- Account recovery in Okta
The prompt for a secondary email address is a built-in security safeguard that ensures users maintain access to their accounts even if their primary corporate email becomes unavailable. By default, when a user falls under a new policy scope, Okta’s identity assurance framework triggers this collection to ensure the user’s recovery profile is complete and secure.
To align with Okta’s commitment to a seamless user experience, administrators can configure the secondary email field as optional rather than mandatory. While the prompt serves as a security best practice, its visibility and requirement status can be managed through the following steps:
- Log in to the Okta Admin Console.
- Navigate to the Customizations menu.
- Select Other from the dropdown list.
- Locate Optional User Account fields.
- Check the box next to Secondary Email to disable it.
- Save the changes.
