The way we identify ourselves on the internet is with a username and password. Usually the username is either our email, our name, or some other identifier we use repeatedly.
Many times your username is used to identify comments that you make on the site. To steal your account all an attacker needs to do is guess your password, since in most cases your username is readily available.
Many times people use the same password on multiple sites and when one site is compromised all your accounts using that password on other sites are in jeopardy.
Recently the LinkedIn usernames and passwords were stolen and sold on the Internet for around $2000. Most likely as a result of reusing his email and password from LinkedIn, Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts were compromised.
Even if you follow the advice given by cybersecurity experts and use a unique strong password for every account you can still fall victim to someone answering your security questions and resetting your password. Especially if you are a celebrity, the answers to your security question may be easy to find.
What was your mother’s maiden name, where were you born, where were you married, and other security questions might be answered with a quick google search. For those of you who are not celebrities, many people still might know the answers to these questions.
One of the ideas that security experts have come up with to combat the username and password issue is two factor authentication.
This requires that the user provides more than one form of authentication, so in addition to a login, the person must provide an additional proof of identity. The offline equivalent would be requiring both a driver’s license and a birth certificate before you accepted a person’s identity.
A popular implementation of two factor authentication requires that you use both a username and password along with code sent to your phone or email if you are connecting from a new location.
Once you have logged in from that location all that is required is the username and login.