LinkedIn has announced that it is now going to offer an optional additional layer of account security to its users: two step verification. Even the strongest of lone passwords are susceptible to brute force attacks, two step verification might not be bulletproof itself, at least it does offer an additional and hard to get around layer of security. Twitter, after a series of high profile account hacks, has also implemented two step authentication for its accounts.
Two step verification significantly reduces the risk of an account being compromised through an unknown computer. Users will have to punch in a numeric code that will only be sent to their phone via SMS when logging in from an unrecognized device. It is upon entering that code that the user will be given access. This makes things a bit hard for hackers as they not only need passwords, they need some way to read the code sent via SMS. While two step verification might be optional, its definitely not a fool’s errand to activate it for your account. Better to be safe than sorry.