Online Security is one of the major concern. People are advised to keep their password strong, unique and they are also advised to change their password at regular interval of time to keep their account secure.Google has now introduced two layer authentication for Sign in to the account similar to One Time Pin (OTP) here in India, mostly used for Online fund transaction. However this feature is not active for all region in the world but you may show your interest.
The technology is not new but will be used first time for logging in to an email account. Google is really one who is serious about online security. and a lot of features available to keep Google account secure.
According to Google’s Product Manager Nishit Shah published on Official Google blog:
There are plenty of examples (like the classic “Mugged in London” scam) that demonstrate why it’s important to take steps to help secure your activities online. Your Gmail account, your photos, your private documents—if you reuse the same password on multiple sites and one of those sites gets hacked, or your password is conned out of you directly through a phishing scam, it can be used to access some of your most closely-held information.
and
2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code obtained using your phone.
You will first need to register your mobile number with Google to receive the PIN. To signup you have first to goto your “My Account” page. The page will have a new link shown in the image below.
After successful registration of your mobile, You will be ready to use the feature. When ever you will login, you have to pass two step to sign in. 1st step will be same as the current process we are using where as, in second step, your pin will be either sent to your mobile number via SMS or will be generated in an application installed on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry device. similar to the image shown.
Definitely, It will improve Account security.
Further Reading: Activate 2 step Verification (Slide Show)
Thanks for the article. We ALL need to be more proactive about our personal account security. In this day and age we need to take responsibility of our info. If you don’t trust the site don’t use it. But one thing that can’t be stressed enough is taking advantage of the 2FA (2-Factor Authentication). Although it’s been around for a while, not enough sites are offering and promoting this option. And the even sadder fact is there are millions of people who are not taking advantage of this awesome functionality that is being offered to them by several sites. I really hope people and companies wake-up to the need to kick this complacent attitude about authentication and passwords. Take advantage of the 2FA which allows us to telesign into our accounts. I know some will claim this make things more complicated, but the slight inconvenience each time you log in is worth the confidence of knowing your info is secure. This should be a prerequisite to any system that wants to promote itself as being secure.
ReplyDelete