
A malefactor who somehow plucks that one-time password out of the ether will find it useless within 30 seconds. You log in using your regular password, then enter the current one-time password from your device, and you're in. By convention, each TOTP is good for 30 seconds. Both the device and the server can generate a time-based one-time password by processing that key along with the current time. When the user registers a TOTP-supporting device with a secure website, a unique shared key is created. In 2011, the Internet Engineering Task Force released a standard for Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP) (Opens in a new window). A hacker who steals or guesses your password will be foiled by the authentication step that requires that token.

Authy turns your smartphone into a physical token that's needed for login, along with the password. A password manager lets you use tough-to-remember passwords, but in a data breach it doesn't matter if your password was "* " or "password." You can vastly enhance your security by using a two-factor authentication scheme, and Twilio's Authy makes two-factor authentication easier than ever.Įxperts divide authentication factors into three types: something you know (a password, for example), something you have (a physical object), and something you are (a fingerprint or other biometric trait).
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