Two-factor authentication

With the onset of technology, things get easier – until somebody thinks they want to steal from you. Getting your credit card, getting your ATM card, getting the password to your email or electronic accounts – all of these can lead to substantial losses.

It’s easy for people to steal your password. You may just leave a password in a post-it in your desk, or you write it in some notebook which got lost. You share it with somebody else, and suddenly, it goes to the wrong hands.

Of course, there are also malware that sends you to the wrong sites where you input your password, and voila, they have it. Or they can hack the host – foremost among these was that there has been a hack on some websites where credit card information was stolen.

A few years back, somebody hacked into Yahoo and got off with over three billion accounts with their passwords.

The way to get more security is what you would call two-factor authentication. In this case, there is additional verification that is done – most likely from a trusted device like your cell phone. So when you input your credit card, you input a security code. After that, the bank will send a security password to your enrolled cell phone number, and you have to key that in as well.

There are many ways this is done. For instance, you might be also asked a couple of personal questions that only you would know – like who your high school buddy was, which elementary school you went to, or the name of your first dog or pet.

With that, the website will monitor where you are logging in from. Once it discovers that you are logging in from another country, or from another computer ( maybe at the airport or internet café), it will demand additional verification.

In chat software such as WeChat, which is mainly used in China also for transferring money, it will ask you to verify your login from your cell phone, especially if you often use WeChat on your personal phone and in your computer.

The two-factor authentication is normally available in Google Mail and in Office 365, or Exchange Server Mail. If you are concerned about security, you can either activate it, or ask your administrator for it.

Recently, Google introduced an advanced security measure called ultra-secure mode. These are mainly targeted at high risk users like politicians, officials, high net- worth individuals, activists, and journalists. In this case, it is not as easy as having a code sent to your cell phone.

Logging in really needs a special USB key or a dongle which can recreate special passwords. It will also utilize more intensive processes to scan the documents you have in your mailbox for malware.

As you may have known, there were issues in last year’s US presidential elections, and it was widely believed that Russian hackers was the reason Hillary Clinton lost. One of Hillary Clinton’s campaign managers John Podesta’s email was hacked without his knowledge. For several weeks, the details of his emails were going to WikiLeaks.

Using a physical dongle is deemed to be even more secure than a temporary code that is sent through the cell phone network in which it may be intercepted.

More security can mean more inconvenience. But in a world where it is so profitable to hack and steal electronically without leaving your home, we have to continue to be vigilant so that the wrong information or money does not get into the wrong hands. If you are concerned, then look into the two-factor authentication.