Google is so sick of you relying on passwords that the company hopes to one day ditch the authentication method altogether. But in the meantime, the search giant is introducing a simpler way of improving security online: activating two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Google accounts by default.
The Big G currently offers 2FA — also known as two-step verification (2SV) — as an optional setting, but will soon turn it on automatically.
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Mark Risher, Google’s director of product management, identity, and user security, announced the plan in a Thursday blog post:
Today we ask people who have enrolled in two-step verification (2SV) to confirm it’s really them with a simple tap via a Google prompt on their phone whenever they sign in. Soon we’ll start automatically enrolling users in 2SV if their accounts are appropriately configured.
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An “appropriately configured” account will already include recovery information, such as a secondary email or a phone number. You can check your setup on Google’s Security Checkup page
You’ll also have the choice to opt-out of 2FA, but that’s normally an unwise move. Studies by Microsoft found that your account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised if you use multi-factor authentication.
That doesn’t mean that 2FA is perfect, but it’s a lot safer than following Kanye West’s lead and securing your account with just the password 000000.
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