I feel like a week does not go by without a family member asking for IT help. There isn’t anything wrong with that, I love the fact that I can help out others. I also appreciate the fact that I understand technology and I love to share what I know. One of the biggest issues are PASSWORDS. No one remembers their passwords or is at least not using an app to store them. People always have to write down their passwords. And we have been using the same bad passwords for years, it is exhausting. Here is one of the all famous and amusing lists of most popular passwords for 2017. The good thing I see now is that a lot of businesses and applications are implementing two factor authentication which in my eyes means that hopefully people will be able to use passwords they can remember but they will now be secure… even if that password is bad.
Let me give you an example… I have been using this blog for many years. A lot of people connect with me on this blog. I don’t want someone to be able to log into the blog and delete posts or even post something I don’t like. I added two factor authentication for my account and now when I log in with my user name and password. I am then prompt with a new screen to enter my authentication code. I open my authentication app on my phone and I enter in the 6 digit authentication code. Yes I previously set up my account using a third party authenticator app but once it is set up, you are good to go. There are a lot of third party authentication apps and I will admit that I have to use more than one to get into my accounts but I am ok with this. Some of the authenticator apps (available on both Apple and Android phones) are Microsoft, Google, Symantec, Duo Mobile, Authy, and I am sure there are so many more. You want to check with the application to find out what authentication apps they support.
On that note… did you know that some of your favorite applications have two factor authentication? Apps like Slack, Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, Gmail, Amazon, Dropbox, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Evernote, shall I continue? These are just tech companies. I know that at least one of my banks support two factor authentication… does yours?
I also know that Bank of America uses an extra level of security with SafePass but WARNING: if you are not using an authenticator and are having a code sent to you via text message, please make sure your phone is set up so that you can not read texts on the lock screen, it kind of kills the point of security to have your code sent to you and someone else can see it!!! For example, what if someone steals my phone and they are trying to get into my bank account and a code gets sent to my phone that lets them in, well this is only possible if they can read the code on the locked screen. If they can’t then they will need to figure out how to get in to my phone… maybe this needs to be my next banks rants.
Check out my banks rants on two factor authentication below and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube so that you never miss an episode or follow me on twitter @banksek
