T-Mobile hack is every reason you need two-factor authentication. How and why to use it

T-Mobile has spent the last week doing damage control after the wireless carrier admitted it’d been hacked. Thus far, T-Mobile has discovered that 54 million customers have had their personal information, including names, addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers accessed. 

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The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. Sarah Tew/CNET

© Sarah Tew/CNET

The T-Mobile hack is exactly why you should use two-factor authentication. You can never be too careful with your online accounts. 

Whenever breaches like this happen, it’s common to wonder what more you can do to help protect your personal information from any scenario that could expose your sensitive information to hacking and fraud. The answer is: A lot. Start by creating and using complex passwords stored in a password manager, and then enable two-factor authentication for every account you have that supports boosting the security of your account. You should also check to see if your account passwords are already on the dark web, and then change them; again, using a password manager. 

Two-factor authentication may sound technical, but it’s more time-consuming to set up than anything. Below I’ll explain what two-factor authentication is and how it works, offer some best practices, and provide a shortlist of popular websites that support your accounts’ added layer of security. Trust me, it’s worth it. 

What is two-factor authentication?

Two-factor authentication (also sometimes written as 2FA) is also commonly referred to as two-step verification or multi-factor verification. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to it as 2FA or two-factor authentication for the duration of this post. 

Think of two-factor authentication as an extra layer of security for your online accounts. If you’re not using 2FA on an account, your login process involves entering your username and password, and that’s it….