A two-factor authentication soon to be enabled by default by Google

To access Google services, it will soon be mandatory to validate your connection attempt with your smartphone – or another way to authenticate a second time. Enough to significantly strengthen account security.

Securing access to the accounts of its users is obviously a challenge for any company, and even more so when your name is Google and its ecosystem is a real digital octopus. To do this, taking advantage of International Password Day which took place yesterday, Google announces that it will soon deploy double authentication by default.

This is undoubtedly the most effective system to prevent account theft and other identity theft, as Mark Risher, director of user security, points out in a post dedicated to this announcement . “Using their mobile device to log in gives people a more secure authentication experience than passwords alone,” he says, knowing that a simple code sent by text message can potentially be intercepted.

The password, this weak link in computer security

This “two-step verification” , as Google calls it, can however only be active if its user account has been correctly configured (which Google will invite its users to do when the time comes, of course). In fact, each connection attempt must be validated using your smartphone, to certify that it is legitimate. Another possibility is to use a terminal to validate your connections, such as the Google Titan USB security key. Any smartphone, Android or iOS, can also be used as a security key.

Google is indeed campaigning for a safer digital universe and – paradoxically – devoid of passwords, which according to the firm constitute a weak link in computer security. When we see each year the popularity that the worst passwords always have and that we know the proportion of Internet users who use the same sesame on multiple sites and services, we indeed understand that the password is a vulnerable system. Google invites its users to go now to their account settings to activate double checking and verify that the security options chosen are adequate.