Monday, January 16, 2012

2-Step Verification for Google

After reading this and confirming that Eric Schmidt is not in my friend list on Facebook, I have activated the two step authentication for my Google accounts. Now logging in requires two factors - something I know (the password) and something I have (my mobile phone). You can register a computer for 30 days, so you don't have to repeat the process all the time.

It is not too intrusive on the main Google pages, but not all of their apps are configured to require the code from your mobile phone. In those cases, Google creates a special, complex password that you must use.

I just cannot imaging losing all the work from the past year. I have been doing the poor man's backup, but I was sending to the Gmail account that is tied to the blog. I even commented then that might not be the best strategy. I'm off to change that now.

2 comments:

  1. Had two-factor on for about six months now... not sure if it gives my account that much more security, but it has not proven to be too difficult to deal with, so I will probably keep it. Be sure to print out that little "backup number" sheet and keep it handy, in case your phone goes down, though...

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