A.Nonymous
Extreme Android User
I've seen a few posts on here where people have mentioned their GMail accounts got hacked. I wanted to post and encourage everyone to turn on two factor authentication in GMail. It does take about 15-20 mins to set up, but it makes your account ultra-secure.
I'm sure you've all heard the old security adage about "something you have and something you know" in order to log in. That's what two factor authentication is. It's similar to what you might see at a bank or a doctor's office where the person carries around a keyfob that randomly generates a number that changes every 60-90 seconds or so. In order to log in, someone must have their user name/password (which can be guessed/hacked) and that random 6-7 digit number (which is virtually impossible to guess).
GMail does this with an app on your phone that randomly generates a number. When you log on to a computer you've never logged into before it asks for your user name/password and that number. You can have it cache your credentials on that computer for 30 days so you don't have to do this every time you log on to your home computer for instance. If you log on at a public computer, you can tell it not to save your credentials so if you log on there again it'll ask for your number.
It makes your account uber-secure. If you hacked my password right now, it wouldn't do you any good. You would need the randomly generated number. That number is 6 digits and changes every 60-90 seconds. There are literally a million different combinations and there's no way you could try them all in just 60-90 seconds.
Mobile apps like GMail, Google Voice and other apps that access your Google account don't support two factor authentication. Google gets around this by randomly generating passwords for those apps. You generate a password from your browser, enter it in the app and you're good to go. If your phone gets stolen, you can revoke that password from any browser and it's no good any more. That password is all letters and is 16 characters long and is something like - mufabpnigwbprhcl (password I just randomly generated and then revoked). This password would be hackable as someone could guess it, but there are literally 4.36 x 10-22 combinations to guess. If someone does hack it, they're extremely determined.
Sorry for the long post, but everyone really should turn this on. Makes your account more secure and if your phone gets stolen, you can revoke the master password for you phone and all your personal data on the phone is secure again without you having to change your main password.
I'm sure you've all heard the old security adage about "something you have and something you know" in order to log in. That's what two factor authentication is. It's similar to what you might see at a bank or a doctor's office where the person carries around a keyfob that randomly generates a number that changes every 60-90 seconds or so. In order to log in, someone must have their user name/password (which can be guessed/hacked) and that random 6-7 digit number (which is virtually impossible to guess).
GMail does this with an app on your phone that randomly generates a number. When you log on to a computer you've never logged into before it asks for your user name/password and that number. You can have it cache your credentials on that computer for 30 days so you don't have to do this every time you log on to your home computer for instance. If you log on at a public computer, you can tell it not to save your credentials so if you log on there again it'll ask for your number.
It makes your account uber-secure. If you hacked my password right now, it wouldn't do you any good. You would need the randomly generated number. That number is 6 digits and changes every 60-90 seconds. There are literally a million different combinations and there's no way you could try them all in just 60-90 seconds.
Mobile apps like GMail, Google Voice and other apps that access your Google account don't support two factor authentication. Google gets around this by randomly generating passwords for those apps. You generate a password from your browser, enter it in the app and you're good to go. If your phone gets stolen, you can revoke that password from any browser and it's no good any more. That password is all letters and is 16 characters long and is something like - mufabpnigwbprhcl (password I just randomly generated and then revoked). This password would be hackable as someone could guess it, but there are literally 4.36 x 10-22 combinations to guess. If someone does hack it, they're extremely determined.
Sorry for the long post, but everyone really should turn this on. Makes your account more secure and if your phone gets stolen, you can revoke the master password for you phone and all your personal data on the phone is secure again without you having to change your main password.
Good luck getting into my gmail account!
