Skip to footer

In wake of hacks, Twitter introduces new two-step verification process

Twitter's new security feature is optional. But if you use the micro-blogging platform a lot, it's probably a good idea. 

|
Twitter Music
The Twitter Music website is up, though it is not granting access to users as of noon on Friday. Twitter will launch a music app at some point in the future using technology from We Are Hunted, a music discovery service Twitter acquired.
|
Twitter
Twitter is introducing a new security feature.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Twitter has seen no end of high-profile hacks in recent months. Burger King had its account commandeered, as did Jeep. Meanwhile, the feeds of several media outlets, including the Financial Times, the BBC, and the Associated Press, have been taken over by a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army. Now, in the wake of these attacks, Twitter is introducing a beefed-up (and totally optional) user authentication feature. 

"Today we’re introducing a new security feature to better protect your Twitter account: login verification," Twitter's Jim O'Leary wrote in a blog post this morning. "This is a form of two-factor authentication. When you sign in to twitter.com, there’s a second check to make sure it’s really you. You’ll be asked to register a verified phone number and a confirmed email address." 

To sign up, boot up Twitter, and click on the account settings drop-down (that cog up in the top-right corner of your screen). Select "require a verification code when I sign in," and enter your phone number. The whole process is pretty painless (and very quick). 

Once you activate the verification feature, Twitter will send you an SMS message each time you attempt to sign on to Twitter. That message will contain a six-digit pin that you'll use to complete the log-in process. Of course, all this means you always need to have your phone nearby, which can be a bit of a pain.

But as Hayley Tsukayama of the Washington Post notes today, it's totally worth it. 

"Given how embarrassing Twitter hacks can be for individuals and organizations, it makes good sense to give up a little bit of convenience for an extra layer of security," she writes. "It’s better to have to reach for your phone whenever you log in than have to clean up your online reputation later." 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to In wake of hacks, Twitter introduces new two-step verification process
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0523/In-wake-of-hacks-Twitter-introduces-new-two-step-verification-process
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe