One of Facebook’s most important and effective security features aimed at preventing unauthorised access to your account is their support for two factor authentication. Here is why and how you should use it.
There are many ways your Facebook password could be compromised. You could fall for a phishing scam. You could have key-sniffing malware on your computer or use a shared computer with key-sniffing malware already installed. Or there is always the possibility that a data leak at Facebook (or another company where you use the same password) occurs. Or someone could simply see you type it in.
2FA provides an additional layer of security to your online account, meaning it is not just your password that is needed to gain access to the account. This means that if your password does get compromised, an intruder still can’t access the account as they still require an additional piece of data.
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Now, before the prospect of having to enter two pieces of information each time you want to login to your Facebook account puts you off, the additional second PIN code only needs to be entered if you’re accessing Facebook from an unknown device (a device you haven’t previously used.) If you’re logging in from – for example – your home computer or smartphone, only the standard password is needed (unless you set your browser to remember your login details, in which case you’re logged in automatically as normal.)
Facebook supports a number of different types of 2FA methods. The most popular is the SMS method which sends a PIN code to the user’s phone when they try and login from an unrecognised device. However given Facebook’s checkered history with privacy and the safekeeping of phone numbers, we wouldn’t be surprised if the idea of giving the social network your phone number isn’t appealing.
So alternatively you can use an authenticator app on your phone which you simply open up and it generates a code for you to input. Google have a good authenticator app which you can download and setup from either the Google Play or iTunes app stores, but there are many others available. Such authenticator apps can also be used with other online accounts as well. Facebook also supports third party USB keys for those familiar with them, and you can also download and print recovery codes which are useful in case you lose or are unable to use your phone to generate a code with any of the aforementioned methods.
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Enabling 2FA is now considered a vital part of your approach to online security. There are so many different methods crooks can obtain your password, so it is important to still be able to prevent them from accessing your account if that does happen. And two-factor authentication is an effective way to do that.
So we do strongly recommend enabling it. To enable 2FA, simply head to your main settings (in Settings and Privacy in the mobile app) and select Security and Login and then Use two factor authentication and then simply select the method(s) you want to use and follow the on-screen instructions. We have a guide on using third party authenticator apps here.
We strongly recommend enabling two factor authentication for your Facebook account. So many sophisticated scams are out there in the wild that can obtain your passwords, meaning simply having a single layer of security (the username and password) may no longer be sufficient to effectively protecting your account. For all those important online accounts, we strongly recommend enabling any available 2 factor authentication solution to help protect your online security.