This week Twitter
finally announced their implementation of two-factor authentication. This was
an effort made to help secure user accounts from hackers. While hacking of
social media accounts may not seem like a big deal, last year many users
suffered from having their account hacked.
Twitter hackings used to mean virus like links being shared via direct
message. While this was a major annoyance, there wasnt much harm done. After
Twitter starting teaming up with some payments companies, Twitter hackings
became a much bigger deal. Now users can upload their credit card information
into their accounts for social
payments. While this is of great convenience to users, this made Twitter
hacking that much more valuable, literally.
The new two-factor
authentication will work just like may other standard models do. Logging
into an account will require something you know, like a password, and something
you have, your mobile phone. When users log in, they will have an
authentication code send to their mobile phones via SMS and then will have to
enter the code in order to log in. Of course, this will typically work for
desktop logins and mobile web logins app users may not have this option quite
yet. What about brand accounts? Or accounts that have multiple people signing
in? These are some logistics that may not have been complete thought through
when first introducing this new security feature. Another downfall of two-factor
authentication is physical theft. What if a user is signed up for this new
feature and their phone is stolen or a thief has their phone? At this point the
two-factor authentication no longer protect the account. While two-factor
authentication is step in the right direction, it may not be the final step for
better online fraud
prevention.
[Contributed by EVS Marketing]