In 2026, businesses across Central Texas are increasingly turning on multi-factor authentication and assuming the job is done. And for a long time, that was a reasonable assumption. But a technique called MFA fatigue, also known as push bombing, has changed the math. Attackers have found a way to break through MFA that does not require cracking passwords or exploiting software. It requires only patience and a tired employee.
At CTTS, we are seeing more businesses come to us after a breach that happened even though MFA was enabled. The common thread is almost always the same: push notifications. If your IT support in Austin or anywhere in Central Texas relies on push-based approval as its second factor, this post is worth reading carefully.
What Is at Stake
MFA fatigue is not a theoretical concern. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report documented a 217% year-over-year increase in MFA fatigue attacks in 2025. That number has continued to climb in 2026 as more organizations turned on MFA and attackers responded by adapting their methods.
Here is how it works. An attacker already has a user's username and password, typically purchased from a dark web credential broker for a few dollars, stolen in a breach the employee was not even aware of. The only barrier left is the MFA prompt. So the attacker triggers login attempts over and over, each one generating a push notification on the employee's phone. They do this at 6 AM, at 11 PM, on a Friday afternoon, in the middle of a deadline, whenever the employee is most likely to approve without thinking.
Research suggests that a significant percentage of employees have approved an MFA request without confirming it was legitimate. A single tap. That is the entire breach.
The financial cost of account takeover is significant. Recovery, forensics, and notification costs for a mid-sized business regularly reach six figures. For a professional services firm or healthcare organization in Austin, the compliance consequences can be even steeper.
Why Central Texas Businesses Face This Challenge
Central Texas businesses face a particular version of this problem. The region has grown rapidly, and many businesses are still running on tools and processes designed for a smaller, simpler operation. IT decisions were made years ago when cloud infrastructure was new and MFA meant security.
Businesses in New Braunfels, San Marcos, and Buda often have lean teams where one person handles everything from technology to compliance to vendor management. That person is stretched. When push notifications start arriving, the instinct is often to approve and move on, not to stop and investigate.
The problem is compounded by the sophistication of modern credential theft. Phishing campaigns in 2026 are increasingly AI-generated, grammatically perfect, personalized, and nearly indistinguishable from legitimate communication. Microsoft reported a 146% rise in QR code phishing in Q1 2026 alone. A credential stolen through one of these campaigns looks exactly like a legitimately entered password. By the time MFA is the only line of defense, the attacker has already done their homework.
How CTTS Helps with IT Support in Austin and Central Texas
When a business comes to CTTS with concerns about account security, we do not start with a product pitch. We start with an audit. We look at which accounts are using which authentication methods, where the highest-risk access points are, and what visibility the business currently has into authentication events.
From there, we work through a practical transition. Not every account needs the same level of protection, and not every employee can realistically move to a hardware security key on day one. What we build is a layered approach that closes the highest-risk gaps first.
For executive email, finance, and administrative accounts, the ones an attacker would target first, we move to number-matching MFA or FIDO2 passkeys as quickly as the environment allows. Both of these methods require the person authenticating to take an active, informed step that cannot be completed accidentally or out of exhaustion.
We also configure conditional access policies in Microsoft 365 and connected systems so that logins from unfamiliar locations, unusual times, or new devices trigger additional scrutiny. This means that even if credentials are compromised, the context of the login itself raises a flag before access is granted.
Best Practices for Stopping MFA Fatigue in 2026
Replace Push Approval with Number Matching
The single fastest improvement most businesses can make is enabling number matching in Microsoft Authenticator. Instead of approving a push notification blindly, the employee must enter a two-digit number displayed on the login screen. An attacker generating push requests does not have access to that number. The technique eliminates blind approval overnight without requiring new hardware.
Number matching is available to any Microsoft 365 tenant and takes a few minutes to configure. If your IT support team in Austin has not already recommended this, it is worth asking about on your next call.
Move High-Risk Accounts to Passkeys or FIDO2
Passkeys are phishing-resistant by design. The credential is tied to a specific device and a specific domain. An attacker cannot intercept it with a proxy, and a user cannot accidentally hand it over on a fake login page. For accounts that carry the most risk, executive email, billing systems, remote access, passkeys represent a meaningful step up in protection.
Microsoft 365 supports passkeys and FIDO2 security keys natively. Rolling them out requires planning and user communication, but the process is straightforward with the right IT support. Businesses in Austin and Round Rock that have made this transition tell us the behavior change was smaller than they expected and the protection is substantially stronger.
Configure Conditional Access Policies
Conditional access is the intelligent layer that decides whether a login attempt should even be allowed to proceed. A login from an unrecognized device in an unfamiliar geography at 2 AM should not get the same treatment as a login from a known laptop in the Georgetown office on a Tuesday morning.
Setting up conditional access well requires understanding how your business actually operates — who accesses what, from where, at what times. That is work CTTS does as part of our managed IT approach. We build policies that protect without creating friction for legitimate users going about their normal day.
Train Your Team to Recognize an Attack
Security awareness training is only as good as the scenarios it covers. Most employees have been trained on phishing emails. Far fewer have been trained on what to do when their phone lights up with a dozen authentication requests in rapid succession.
The right response is not to approve and get back to work. The right response is to deny all requests, lock the account if possible, and call IT immediately. Building that reflex in your team costs very little and closes a gap that technology alone cannot close. An employee who recognizes the attack in progress is one of your most effective defenses.
Audit Credentials Against Known Breach Databases
Password reuse is the reason most MFA fatigue attacks are possible in the first place. An attacker has your employee's password because that employee used it on another site that was breached. Running credentials against known breach databases, Microsoft's built-in tools do some of this, and a more thorough audit goes further, tells you which accounts are most exposed and where to prioritize your response.
Take the Next Step
MFA fatigue is a solvable problem. The tools exist, the configurations are available in your existing Microsoft 365 subscription, and the training takes an afternoon. What most businesses lack is the time and expertise to put it together correctly.
CTTS works with businesses across Central Texas to build authentication environments that hold up against modern attacks. If your team is still approving push notifications without number matching, you have a gap worth closing today.
Schedule a free strategy session with CTTS today. We will walk through where you stand and what it takes to get you to a genuinely more secure place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between MFA fatigue and a standard phishing attack?
Standard phishing tries to trick a user into entering their password on a fake website. MFA fatigue assumes the attacker already has the password, often stolen in an earlier breach, and focuses on wearing down the employee's judgment until they approve a legitimate-looking authentication request. Both target human behavior rather than technical vulnerabilities, but they operate at different stages of the attack chain. Phishing steals credentials. MFA fatigue uses those stolen credentials to get through the second factor.
If we already use Microsoft Authenticator, are we protected from push bombing?
Not automatically. Standard push approval in Microsoft Authenticator, where the user simply taps Approve, is vulnerable to push bombing. What protects against it is number matching, which requires the user to enter a code displayed on the login screen, or phishing-resistant authentication like FIDO2 passkeys. Enabling number matching in your Microsoft 365 tenant is a straightforward configuration change that significantly reduces this risk. If you are not sure whether your current setup has this enabled, that is worth checking with your IT support provider in Austin or wherever you operate.
How do I know if my team's credentials are already circulating in breach databases?
There are several ways to check. Microsoft 365 includes built-in tools under Identity Protection that flag known compromised credentials. Third-party services let individuals check specific email addresses. A more thorough approach, one that covers your entire organization and gives you a complete picture, involves a credential audit conducted by an IT security team. CTTS includes this as part of our security assessment process. The goal is to identify exposed credentials before an attacker finds them and puts them to use.
Contact CTTS today for IT support and managed services in Austin, TX. Let us handle your IT so you can focus on growing your business. Visit CTTSonline.com or call us at (512) 388-5559 to get started!