Google published a blog post highlighting their research that showed that simply adding a recovery phone number to your Google Account can block up to 100% of automated bots, 99% of bulk phishing attacks, and 66% of targeted attacks that occurred during our investigation.
Expert Comments:
Jake Moore, Security Specialist at ESET:
“All of the big tech firms offer many layers of extra security; the problem lies with them not being mandatory. These companies want to help their customers’ accounts be secure, but the problem is that users tend to favour ease-of-use over security.
However, it isn’t difficult to add extra security. Since these companies already know most of our locations in real time (and sometimes even what we are saying), giving them our phone number to beef up our protection does more good than harm, as it adds additional security around the account.
All browsers, websites and apps should provide straightforward access to their privacy and security settings in their application’s menu. There should be a variety of tools for consumers to use for free and with ease to make accounts more robust and less attractive to hackers. Two-factor authentication is a favourite, but downloading and implementing an authentication app such as Google Authenticator would be even better. “
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