Twitter hardens two-factor authentication with app-based secure logins

Barely two months after rolling out two-factor authentication, Twitter has beefed up its login procedures yet again, both to improve security and to make two-factor available to more Twitter users worldwide.

Twitter launched two-factor authentication in late May with a system based on SMS messaging. While that was good enough for many users, however, it did present some problems.

For one thing, verification via SMS is only available via supported mobile carriers, which isn’t all of them. For another, using SMS as a security mechanism relies on the SMS delivery channel being secure, and some carriers’ text messaging systems might not be.

On Tuesday, Twitter rolled out an update to its two-factor authentication scheme that can optionally make use of the Twitter mobile app for Android and iOS, rather than SMS.

SOURCE: theregister.co.uk