Thursday, April 25, 2013

Two-Factor Authentication for Online Accounts

If you have been following the news, you will note that the stock market lost $200 BILLION dollars in two minutes after the AP Press Twitter account was hacked with an erroneous posting about a bombing at the White House.  You can read more about the hack in the article, The power of one wrong tweet, at http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/tech/social-media/tweet-ripple-effect/index.html?hpt=te_r1 The common person probably would not be sought out to hack, but it could happen.

PC World has an excellent article, How to set up two-factor authentication for Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more, at http://www.pcworld.com/article/2036252/how-to-set-up-two-factor-authentication-for-facebook-google-microsoft-and-more.html

You may have already set up two-factor authentication without realizing it.  When a website, such as Facebook or Google sends a code your cell number and requires you to enter it in addition to the login and password, you have two-factor authentication.  So if your account it hacked, the hacker may have your login and password, but not the second authentication code.

No comments :

Post a Comment