We at Mac Aid have found that an increasing number of people have enabled Two Factor Authentication on their devices. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, some clients seem to have done it without realising, or really wanting it enabled.
Two factor authentication is an added layer of protection for your Apple ID designed to ensure you’re the only person who can access your account. Even if your password is known.
With two-factor authentication enabled, your account can only be accessed on devices you trust, like your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
When you want to sign in to a new device for the first time, you’ll need to provide information—your password and the six-digit verification code that’s automatically displayed on trusted devices. By entering the code, you’re verifying that you trust the new device.
Trusted devices are an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch with iOS 9 and later, or Mac with OS X El Capitan and later that you’ve already signed in to using two-factor authentication. It’s a device known to be yours and that can be used to verify your identity by displaying a verification code from Apple when you sign in on a different device or browser.
A trusted phone number is needed. It is used to receive verification codes by text or phone call. You must verify at least one trusted phone number to enrol in two-factor authentication.
You should also consider verifying other phone numbers you can access, such as a home phone, or a number used by a family member or close friend. You can use these numbers if you temporarily can’t access your own devices.
If you want to enable Two factor Authentication, you can follow the steps here.
We at Mac Aid have found that Two Factor Authentication is good for those who have several devices handy that can be used as trusted devices, and are able to access one or more of them at the same time.
However, it can be a hassle and extremely annoying to get everything trusted in order to get anything to work.
There is also the possibility of not having a trusted device close by, or losing your recovery code.
Using Two Factor Authentication does make things more secure, and in this day and age secure is best. However, there can be annoyances and frustrations in order to be secure, as blogger Owen Williams found out.
You can read his article here.
