GETTING STARTED WITH 2FA SECURE YOUR ACCOUNTS NOW OR REGRET IT LATER!

UNIQUE PASSWORDS ARE ESSENTIAL, BUT THEY’RE NOT ENOUGH. YOU SHOULD SECURE ALL IMPORTANT ACCOUNTS WITH TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

- JASON CROSS

Millions of users have their online accounts compromised every day. Password lists are traded on the dark web, and bad actors use automated processes to try them against lots of accounts and services. Sophisticated phishing attacks attempt to trick you into giving away your password (or the info necessary to reset it) by posing as legitimate services or customer support.

Obviously, the best defense against this sort of thing is to have a different, strong, hard-to-guess password for every single account you own. A good password manager like 1Password (go.macworld.com/1pwd), LastPass (go.macworld.com/lpas), or Dashlane (go.macworld.com/dshl) is a key component in managing that.

But good passwords are not enough! Not a month goes by without another report of millions of passwords potentially compromised, and a computer infected with a virus can simply watch the passwords as you type them in. You need another layer of protection. You need 2FA.

We’ve already told you how to enable 2FA on your Apple account (go.macworld. com/a2fa), but what about all your other accounts? Those should be protected with just as much care. Here’s how to get started.

WHAT IS 2FA?