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.
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.