Two-Factor Authentication/2FA: You’ll Love It. Hackers Will Hate It.

Why “two-factor authentication” is a great defense against a hack-attack.

There’s something  referred to as two-factor authentication (2FA) that everyone needs to know about. Anyone with a checking, investment, credit card or social media account. (If don’t know what we’re talking about, please read on.)

Why? Because 2FA is ONE THING that can stop a hacker—whether a live body or an automated one—from logging into your financial accounts and stealing your money.

Two-Factor Authentication might actually be misnamed…more about that in a minute. 2FA isn’t a product or even a service. It’s actually a step you take to protect your accounts…one account at a time.

2FA in action. Let’s take your bank accounts (before a hacker does).

The average person who does online banking of any kind (to transfer money, pay a bill or check their account balance), has to log in to their account to do anything right? In theory, that’s how you’re protected:

• You have to enter-in your email address or username (it’s not your real name)
• Then, for “added protection,” you need to key in your password.

Once you’ve logged in, you have total access to your account information and the services your bank offers you online.

Your username and password are known as your login credentials, and although they are two separate pieces of identifiers, they’re seen as one factor…but arent’ they two? They work together to allow you to log you into your account. Is it any wonder that a thief would LOVE to have your login credentials? Because the only think keeping them from logging in to your account are your username and password.

And that’s not that hard for them to find out. You know those data breaches you hear about all the time? Oftentimes, they attackers steal usernames and passwords from organizations, then use those credentials or versions of them with other companies.

And these days, with AI (Artificial Intelligence) helping them, they can move through thousands of accounts in minutes.

One factor is not enough to keep hackers out of your accounts.

Your password is a line of defense and does indeed hep to keep hackers out of your accounts. But it alone isn’t fool proof, for all kinds of reasons, but they key one is this:

• Skillful hackers steal credentials at an alarming rate and often put them on the dark web for other thieves to buy or steal.
• Stories about hackers getting into accounts are not an exaggeration and are definitely something to worry about. Last year, there were over one million incidents of hackers stealing account login credentials from the 100 largest banks in the world.
• And it’s going to get even easier or hackers to find out our credentials as they use the AI tools now available.

So, to be absolutely clear: if a hacker discovers, guesses at, learns or steals your username and password to one of your accounts, there’s nothing stopping them from logging in to one of your accounts—whether it is your bank, Facebook, Instagram or Amazon—if they have your credentials, they’re in, and can rip you off or steal your identity.

Do you know about passkeys? They’re better than passwords. More

That’s where 2FA comes in and saves your bacon.

2FA: Like a deadbolt on your accounts.

Two-factor authentication is an optional function that is available with likely any online account you have where you have a username, a password and information meant online for you.

Setting up 2FA is liking adding a deadbolt lock (an extra one) to a door and only you have that key.

Here’s how to set it up for virtually any account.

On the website where you have the account, just look for a menu item tagged privacy or security. Then hunt for “two-factor authentication.” Note: it’s sometimes referred to two-step verification, but it’s the same thing.  Here’s what happens next:

• You’ll be asked if you want to use 2FA and how. It will give you the option of getting a text message to complete the login process, or perhaps the email address linked to your account.
• If you choose that SMS (text) option, they’ll send a text to your phone to set up 2FA that way. You can even use to get a phone call instead of a text. Once your phone number is set up as the way to use 2FA, you’re ready to go.

Signing up for peace of mind.

From that point on, your login process is doubly secured. From now on when you login in, once you key in your username and password (the “first factor”), something different will happen: the website will pause the login process and ask you to select the phone number they can send you a special code sent to finish login process.

And they’re going to send that code to YOUR phone directly, and immediately. Once they do, you enter that code right onto the website or app where you’re logging in (the second factor). Only then—only when you enter the correct secret code—do gain access to your online account.

You see, even if a hacker had your credentials, they’d be stopped the second the website asked them what phone number to send the secret code to finish the login. There’s no way for them to get around that (unless they stole your phone from you)! And that’s the beauty of 2FA.

Two-factor authentication: A few last things you need to know.

Take special note of these points as you get ready to add 2FA for better protection:

1. 2FA is an account-by-account process. You have to methodically and deliberately set up 2FA for each account, one by one. Setting up 2FA for your bank account does not affect your social media accounts. They have they’re own 2FA set up process. 
2. There are a few different 2FA options. In addition to text and phone, you can use what’s called an authenticator app, such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. In fact, most security experts suggest using an authenticator app over texts, known as SMS.

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