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Less Than 1 in 10 Gmail Users Enable Two-Factor Authentication (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the usability-vs-security dept.

It has been nearly seven years since Google introduced two-factor authentication for Gmail accounts, but virtually no one is using it. From a report: In a presentation at Usenix's Enigma 2018 security conference in California, Google software engineer Grzegorz Milka this week revealed that, right now, less than 10 per cent of active Google accounts use two-step authentication to lock down their services. He also said only about 12 per cent of Americans have a password manager to protect their accounts, according to a 2016 Pew study.

4 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. No thanks. by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not everyone wants to give Google more personal info -- working phone #, alternate email, etc and so forth.

    Also, this doesn't work well with standards-compatible email clients like Thunderbird or K-9.

  2. Phone number? SMS? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is everyone talking about cellphone numbers and SMS?

    Aren't we talking about Google's own Authenticator application?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Phone number? SMS? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can use a FIDO U2F device, too.

      I have 2FA on. I'm a Congressional Candidate with a technology background; if I got hacked for not taking basic security countermeasures, I'd drop out of the race.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
  3. Re:For obvious reasons ... by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't need to give then your phone number, you can use the Google Authenticator app to generate the one time pass on your device.

    Yeah! This! You don' t need to give them your phone number, you can let their app do it for you. Easy peasy.

    The summary comments on only 12% of people "securing" their accounts with a password manager. A password manager doesn't secure your account. It stores passwords. If you have one account and can remember your password, you don' t need a password manager.

    A password manager is actually a one-point-of-failure way for a bad guy to get all your passwords.