Facebook’s two-factor authentication announcement raises questions

Amid mounting criticism of Facebook’s attitude to its users’ privacy and safety, the social network has announced that it is introducing a two-factor authentication system in an attempt to prevent unauthorised logins to accounts.

The idea is that if you log into your Facebook account from a computer or mobile device that Facebook doesn’t recognise as one that you have used before to access the website, then you’ll have to enter a code to confirm you are who you say you are.

I’m glad to see Facebook introduce what sounds like an additional layer of protection for users, at least for those users who chose to enable the option. Two factor authentication doesn’t address the many other Facebook privacy and safety concerns that are troubling users, but it’s no bad thing.

Unfortunately the…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.