We put a ton of trust in technology everyday, but are you confident enough in two-factor authentication to give out any of your passwords? Christopher Mims of The Wall Street Journal is. In a post on the site proclaiming that passwords are “finally dying,” Mims extolls the virtues of the secure login method immediately after giving out his Twitter password. He says that he’s confident he won’t be hacked because, among other reasons, the second authentication step (a text message containing a numerical code that’s sent to the user’s cellphone, or an app that generates a code should you be outside of cellular data range) is apparently difficult to intrude upon. As Forbes has spotted though, Mims’ Twitter account has since been slammed with people trying to login to it, his phone blew up with authentication codes as a result, forcing him to associate a different phone number with the microblogging service.
The lesson here? If you’re willing to put your online identity up for grabs, prepare for the consequences. It could’ve been a lot worse for Mims, though — it’s not like he gave out his Social Security Number or anything.
Do you trust two-factor authentication enough to try something similar? Head over to our forums and sound off.
@jonkeegan like 2 a minute since it went up…
– Christopher Mims (@mims) July 14, 2014
Filed under: Internet
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Source: Wall Street Journal, Forbes