![]()
That includes both personal accounts (Gmail, YouTube, and other consumer services) and G Suite apps managed by an organization. Where the Google app shines is, naturally, when protecting sign-ins to your Google accounts. For third-party apps and services, you can use any of the three 2FA authenticators I describe here. The dirty little secret is that there's nothing special about the way the Google-branded Authenticator app generates those codes. If you go to just about any online service that supports the six-digit TOTP codes that are at the heart of 2FA, this is the app you're instructed to download. GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR APPLE STORE ANDROIDAll three are completely free and are available for iOS and Android platforms. For all other accounts, use either of those apps or chose a third-party alternative like Authy, which allows you to back up and restore your security configurations so you can remain secure when you switch phones.Īllow me to introduce these three apps, with details about the unique strengths of each. For Microsoft accounts, use the Microsoft Authenticator app. ![]() Here's the tl&dr: If you're protecting Google accounts, use the Google Authenticator app. That setup might sound confusing in theory, but it solves several problems elegantly, and it isn't the least bit annoying in practice. I've settled on a security setup that uses three separate authenticator apps, each one with its own specific security role to play. My configuration is a little different, because I have two phones that I use interchangeably, and a greater-than-average number of online accounts on which 2FA is enabled. Most people choose a single 2FA app and use it for every service. ![]() After passing that challenge, you can typically designate a personal device as trusted and skip the codes for future sign-ins. GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR APPLE STORE CODEWhen you use your credentials to sign in on an untrusted device, the service demands that you enter a Time-based One-time Password Algorithm (TOTP) code generated by that app or respond to a notification on the device. The combination of those two factors sets the proof-of-identity bar high enough that your average thief won't be able to get over it. In that case, the two factors are the classic "something you know" (your sign-in credentials) and "something you have" (the mobile device that you've configured with a shared secret). In this post, I describe the most basic form of 2FA, which uses an authenticator app installed on a mobile phone to provide a secondary form of proof of identity when necessary. It takes just a few minutes to set up, and the result is a layer of protection that will prevent intruders from intercepting your email, stealing funds from your bank account, or hijacking your social media.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |