Two factor authentication
Oct 11, 2013, 12:00 PM | Updated: 12:00 pm
Social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook are constant targets for hackers because they can wreak some serious havoc if they can compromise your account.
Most of them will use your account to send malicious links to all your friends so they too can become victims.
We’ve stressed over and over again that activating a security feature called ‘two factor authentication’ is a key way to avoid ever becoming a victim even if a hacker breaks your password.
Two factor authentication requires two things to gain access to your account: something you know; your password and something you own; your smartphone.
When you activate this feature on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Gmail or any network that supports it, whenever anyone tries to log in from a computer or mobile device that’s not recognized, a special code gets sent to your smartphone to verify that it’s you.
Unless that code is used within a short period of time, the potential hacker won’t be able to go any further, even though they have your password and you’ll now get an alert when someone has figured out your password!
