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You Should Be Using Two-Factor Authentication on Everything

Day three of our personal security tuneup: turn on that 2FA!
Image: Jacqueline Lin/Motherboard

This post is part of a weeklong series to help our readers improve their digital security. Follow along here.

Day Three: Turn on Two-Factor Authentication

Starting with your most sensitive and most-used accounts (anything with a credit card number attached, like Amazon), log in and check to see if there’s an option to turn on two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA or two-step verification). If there is, set it up. Do this for as many accounts as possible—you can see all the services that offer 2FA at twofactorauth.org.

Why should I do this?
Our guide says: “Having unique, strong passwords is a great first step, but even those can be stolen. By enabling two-factor, you'll need something more than just your password to log into those accounts.”