The Guardian reports that Twitter might be implementing two factor authentication for its social network. The news comes just days after the company had to reset 250,000 accounts that had been compromised by a hacker attack.
Two factor authentication blocks access to a user’s account even when the correct username/password combination is used. To access an account the user needs to also insert a special code that is either sent to him by the company or generated dynamically on a device. So even in the event of hackers getting access to a user"s password they couldn"t do too much with it. The system would also notify a user when their account is being attacked.
Other companies such as banks have been using two step authentication for a long time as it is a much more secure method than tradition passwords. Even consumer companies such as Microsoft and Google have this feature implemented for their users and it is encouraging to see Twitter is finally taking threats seriously and helping protect its users.
News of Twitter taking this step seems to have originated from a job posting on Twitter’s website for a “software engineer-product security” whose responsibilities would include to “design and develop user facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection”. It remains to be seen how soon this feature will be implemented but following recent events one thing is certain: the sooner the better.
Source: The Guardian | Image via Aspirelocal