Googler Reminds Users to Turn on Two-Step Verification
Protect yourself from hacks before it's too late.
If you've been keeping an eye on tech news over the last five days, you've no doubt heard all about Wired reporter Mat Honan and the hack that saw his MacBook, iPhone, and iPad wiped, his Google account deleted and his Twitter handle hijacked. Mat describes what happened and how the attackers pulled off their epic hack in a lengthy posting on Wired. However, he also admits that had he had Google's two-step authentication enabled, the whole thing could have been prevented.
Not too long after news of the hack hit the internet, Google's Matt Cutts published a post to his personal blog encouraging people to enable the security feature. "Two-factor authentication means 'something you know' (like a password) and 'something you have,' which can be an object like a phone," he explains.
The idea is that hackers would need to have both your password and your cell phone to access your account. If you don't have your phone on you, you can choose to send the code to a secondary number (which is selected when you enable two-step authentication). If that's also not an option, you can use one of the ten codes Google gives you when you first enable it. These are for those special circumstances when you're without your phone but need to authenticate your password.
Cutts explains that there are some common misconceptions about two-step authentication such as the idea that you have to enter in a pin code every time you want to sign in, that you need to have cell signal if you want to use it (not true if you download a special app), or that two-step doesn't work with POP or IMAP. You can check out his post here for answers to these questions.
It's important to remember that while Honan said two-step verification would have saved him from losing all of his important data and his Google account, he also lamented the fact that he had tied such vital services, his Gmail and iCloud accounts, together. Suffice to say, it's handy to have a one or two unimportant accounts for password recovery.
Do you have two-step authentication enabled? Let us know in the comments below!
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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damianrobertjones ...oh and while you're at it don't run as Administrator within Windows 7. Create two accounts, once called (For example) security. Add a nice password with underscore, this will be your admin account. Now create a new account called Family... configure the account changing things like the pop-up blocker to High within ie9 (Yeah, there's a reason why you get pop-ups) then change that account to a standard user.Reply
if you want to do something scary you will be prompted for the admin password from the Security account.
This stuff should now be common knowledge but isn't. Spread the POSITIVE. -
mrmaia Ever since I had the unfortunate idea to link my cellphone to a Google account, I receive everyday ~4 SMS with advertising - mostly music shows, given my Youtube account is a music one. Google sucks.Reply -
lightsol Have been using the 2 step verification since release, and i would say that its the best thing to come along security wise.Reply -
tupz techguy911And what if you don't have a phone? then what? not everyone has a cell.Reply
Funny guy you are -
techguy911 What if your SMS is hacked it is not really secure and VERY easy to hack bad idea for security feature.Reply
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wiyosaya So his account was hacked, and now Gaggle is blaming him. Well, maybe this is correct, maybe not.Reply
Should not Gaggle have "two step verification" turned on by default?
All this "you're secure with us" crap is an enticement to lure the unsuspecting into the spider web.
Besides, terabytes of storage are extremely inexpensive these days. IMHO, anyone with any brains should not trust their irreplaceable data to the cloud. Buy a few TB disks, RAID them - at least in a RAID 1 configuration on your home PC, and you are at least as safe if not safer by default than with irreplaceable data stored on a cloud server somewhere.
I feel somewhat sorry for this guy, but this exposes another situation where a "tech geek expert" has shown his true mettle is lacking.