Are there MFA options that work without a live network connection?

Yes. Certificate-based smartcards and hardware security tokens can perform cryptographic authentication locally on the device, unlike SMS or push-notification-based factors that depend on active network connectivity at the moment of login.

How offline-capable MFA factors work:

• Local cryptographic operations: The device performs the necessary cryptographic challenge-response locally rather than contacting a remote server.
• No dependency on mobile networks: Unlike SMS codes, which require cellular connectivity, certificate-based factors do not depend on the mobile network being available.
• Suited to intermittent connectivity: Environments with unreliable or restricted network access can still authenticate users reliably.
• Consistent behavior: The authentication experience does not change based on connectivity, reducing support burden.

Cryptas Strong Authentication's certificate-based approach is well suited to these offline or intermittently connected scenarios, since the cryptographic operations underpinning it do not require a live connection to complete successfully.