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Of course, this “solution” brings with it a problem of its own, namely: how do you back up those all-important 2FA seeds in case you lose your phone, or buy a new one and want to switch over to it? The dangerous way to back up seeds

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(The codes are usually based on the date and time to the nearest half-minute, so they change every 30 seconds.)īetter yet, modern phones include tamper-proof secure storage chips (Apple calls theirs Secure Enclave Google’s is known as Titan) that keep their secrets even if you manage to detach the chip and try to dig data out of it offline via miniature electrical probes, or by chemical etching combined with electron microscopy. Those attackers also need access to your phone, and they need to be able to unlock your phone to run the app and get the one-time code.

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That way, crooks who beg, borrow or steal your regular password can’t simply jump straight in to your account. The six-digit codes commonly generated by 2FA apps get calculated right on your phone, not on your laptop they’re based on a “seed” or “starting key” that’s stored on your phone and they’re protected by the lock code on your phone, not by any passwords you routinely type in on your laptop. So 2FA apps, with their one-time login codes, augment your regular password with an additional secret, usually a six-digit number, that changes every time. There’s shoulder-surfing, where a rogue in your midst peeks over your shoulder while you’re typing it in there’s inspired guesswork, where you’ve used a phrase that a crook can predict based on your personal interests there’s phishing, where you are lured into handing over your password to an imposter and there’s keylogging, where malware already implanted on your computer keeps track of what you type and secretly starts recording whenever you visit a website that looks interesting.Īnd because conventional passwords typically stay the same from login to login, crooks who figure out a password today can often simply use it over and over at their leisure, often for weeks, perhaps for months, and sometimes even for years. The problem with conventional passwords is that there are numerous ways that crooks can beg, steal, or borrow them.

To explain, a 2FA ( two-factor authentication) app is one of those programs that you run on your mobile phone or tablet to generate one-time login codes that help to secure your online accounts with more than just a password. The Google Authenticator 2FA app has featured strongly in cybersecurity news stories lately, with Google adding a feature to let you backup your 2FA data into the cloud and then restore it onto other devices.

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