Will the Real You Step Up? How Two-Factor Authentication can be your Online Bodyguard.

Have you noticed that most large scale apps and websites that want you to create an account will accept your Facebook or Google account credentials? What are the real implications of this and how can you make it safer?

It definitely seems so much easier to have only one password to access your accounts, however if your account gets hacked, all of the sites where you use this login information is now also compromised. This is where two-factor authentication (2FA) steps up to the plate, to access your account, the hacker would also need to have access to your second form of identification. Two-factor authentication sounds complex but isn't, it simply means that instead of using just the one method (entering your password) to verify it's actually you, you'll need to provide two different methods of identification. The most common way is for a text to be sent to your phone with a verification code that you enter in to the login page. You don't need to panic about every single app or site you have an account on needing to have 2FA enabled, but if you have sensitive data stored there such as payment information or any other sensitive data, you should consider it. If you decide it's not for you, please consider making your passwords secure and different for each account you have, it's the only thing standing between your information and a hacker. If you have trouble remembering all of your passwords, don't write them down, use a password management tool such as one of those recommended here.

If you'd like to turn 2FA on for your Google account, here is the link with the how-to.

For 2FA on Facebook, this is how to enable it.

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