The reason why Google 'forced' to turn on two-step security

 The reason why Google 'forced' to turn on two-step security

Google says that automatically turning on two-step security last year has cut the number of account hacks in half.

In an article on the occasion of Internet Safety Day on February 8, Google said that the two-step authentication feature that the company implemented has shown to be effective in protecting personal data for users. According to a report based on Google accounts that enable this feature, the number of account breaches has decreased by 50%.

This is the result after four months of testing this feature. In early October 2021, Google automatically enabled two-step (2SV) security for 150 million users, and required 2SV for more than two million YouTube creators to enable 2SV.

Illustrate how 2SV security works. Photo: Google

With this feature, users when logging into their Google account will be asked to click browse on a previously logged in device, or enter a code sent to an SMS message or via a hardware key.

"Turn on 2SV or we'll do it. Because it will make all the difference in case your password is compromised." Google wrote, and said it will continue to automatically enable this feature for users in the next period of 2022.

Google's report does not reveal how many cases have been protected from hackers thanks to this method. However, many opinions also think that 50% is still too small. "Surprisingly the reduction is only 50%. So how is the other 50% hacked if they have two-factor authentication enabled?" sundial users ask questions.

In 2018, a Google engineer also revealed that more than 90% of Gmail accounts at the time were not using two-step authentication. Since then, the company has continuously introduced measures to turn 2SV into a security solution for a larger number of users.

According to The Verge, the level of adoption of two-layer security solutions is still low for most online platforms. Twitter has implemented two-factor authentication since 2013, but by 2020 only 2.3% of users are using it. This figure for Facebook is 4% in 2021.

The most popular two-layer security method today is sending an OTP code via SMS. However, according to experts, this method is becoming increasingly less secure as hackers can perform SIM swapping attacks to infiltrate telecommunications networks or install spyware to capture OTP. A more secure method is to use specialized authentication software or hardware security keys.