Getting Started With Two Factor Authentication

A number of studies and reports have suggested that the passwords commonly used by the wider internet user are extremely terrible. For a number of years the most commonly used password happened to be the 123456 and it has been seen people tend to use same password for multiple accounts which isn’t a good sign. Over the years a number of companies has been attacked & hacked which resulted in leakage of user’s data. This data is later on sold online for millions of dollars wherein the username, passwords, financial details as well as other personal information is made available to the bidder or buyer.

In order to do away with the shortcoming of normal passwords a number of websites are making use of the two-factor authentication process. Two factor authentication means that the users will be required to prove two forms of identification in order to prove their ownership for the said account.

What is Two factor authentication?

It should be noted that in the two-factor authentication brings an added level of security to the accounts. In the first factor there happens to be a password while second factor add a new level of security for unlocking the account. The second factor requires user to take the ownership of the account through an email, list of TAN codes or PAN or a direct text message to phone.

Most of the websites which has brought two-factor authentication rely on the direct text message or call to the device in second factor to authenticate user login. Facebook is an example of a website making use of the two form authentication wherein once the this system is activated by the users then it isn’t possible to get online or have a look at the News Feed without going through the due process. Quite ironically Facebook has also launched the support for a unique physical key with a button which will be used to prove that the user is a real person.

And advanced layer of security

This method has been described as a highly secure way of protecting the personal data as well as information. In case a hacker gets hold of the user’s password then he wouldn’t be able to get access to the account without entering the passcode which are sent either to the phone or email. This system does away with the secret question which happened to be too easy to guess or research in the past.

Websites which are making use of Two-factor authentication

Google has first started introducing the two factor authentication wherein users are required to enter their regular passwords followed by a text message or phone call to enter the verification code. WhatsApp has brought the same security feature on its platform wherein users are required to create a six digit passcode which will be used to install WhatsApp under the same account name on a different device. SnapChat has also brought the two factor ‘Login Verification’ wherein users have to enter sent via text messages to their phone in order to log-in to their account.