New techniques used by password crackers have made passwords less secure. In today’s world we all are or should be concerned about making our online accounts more secure. One of the best ways to make your online accounts more secure is to use 2-factor authentication for those accounts that have made available. 2-factor authentication requires both something you know like a password and something you have like a smart phone and it is much more secure than using just a password since it takes more than a password to access an account.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sarah Palin’s personal email was hacked by someone answering the security question of her mother’s maiden name. Had her account been using 2-factor authentication (it was not as widely available then), her account very likely would not have gotten hacked. Based upon my experience in using Facebook, it would not have been hacked. I pretended to have forgotten my Facebook password. I received an email and still had to sign in using 2-factor authentication. So yes it can be a pain with the additional procedure for logging into an account but it moves you significantly closer to being 100% secure and if your password becomes known may be the difference between your account being compromised or not.
Here is a list of some of the major websites that allow for 2-factor authentication. Some of those on this list are Facebook, Google and LinkedIn. As mentioned, not all sites offer 2-factor authentication but for those that do take advantage of it and enable it.
If you have additional questions about being secure online or other computer problems, I can be reached at (917) 572-3468 or email me at mike@computerconciergeny.com
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Making Your Computer Personal by Mike Klubok - Computer Concierge NY LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License