Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA
Hopefully, you have this set up at the very least with accounts that affect your money. If not, you should go do that.
I'll wait....Welcome back!
Hopefully, it was easy. If not, reach out to support for whatever site you are on to guide you. I wish it was all the same or just mandated at the beginning of setting up an account, but I digress. Wishing is for Aladdin. Anyway, the purpose of this article is to not only get you to start using MFA. I want to push you to use an MFA application rather than receiving a text.
First off I want to say how I totally understand your loud sigh. However, It’s going to be worth the feeling of empowerment you feel if you ever wake up one day and your phone doesn’t have service and 20K is being transferred to a foreign account. Here’s a true story for you to check out. I’m pretty sure it’s true. It’s from the AP News. They’re legit right?!
In case you didn’t read that tale I’ll give you a taster version. Initially, MFA was working out well with phone numbers sending a text until phone companies were tricked into changing people’s accounts to malicious ones, thus giving the attacker your phone number. Now the six-digit code goes to our reverse friend and they in turn take over whatever account was compromised.
This is why you should consider using an app like the one of ones below:
Microsoft Authenticator
These are what I depend on, so I can only vouch for them. Rather than getting texted a code, you go into your app, and the code appears, changing every 20 seconds.
Now, what's the difference between just sticking with a text to your phone? Well, you won’t have to worry if the attacker steals your phone number because the app is saved on your phone. The app is also physically bound to your phone, meaning there is no way to get access to that code other than with that device. This is great! It also is a huge pain in the endocrine system because you will probably want to upgrade your phone one day. You will get your new phone, sign into your MFA application, and the codes will not be there. Don’t worry; you can move them over, but it requires some effort. Don’t just turn in your phone when you upgrade. Hopefully, you can have both phones side by side to do the migration. If that can’t happen then you will need the “Key“ it will ask you to save. You should be able to migrate over more easy with that key. Thank you for reading and I hope that this is helpful!