15/06/2023
Accidently throwing away the keys to your online security.
Having taken steps to keep your various online accounts safe, you might have taken the option to use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) and now when you log in to a site, you are challenged to additionally authorise your access by responding to a message sent to your mobile phone.
Using a Username and Password only, has not been considered to be the safest way of protecting your accounts for a while, so many of the websites we access for email, auctions and shopping now required that we sign up to 2FA.
Some sites require one or more of; a Mobile Phone number, Landline number or secondary email address.
There is a risk.
What happens if you change your email address? Well, you lose the ability to respond to any 2FA request sent to the email address. But people usually keep their email addresses.
The same is true for mobile phone numbers too, but again, most people will retain their number from year to year, but may move to another provider.
But what of the landline?
If we moved house to a different area, we would probably lose our number.
If we move within the area we currently live, there is a chance we can retain the number.
But… There is a risk that is not being spoken about and may well be something we walk into blindly.
When we move to a Broadband only service, we lose our landline.
If we want to receive calls to our homes, we have the option to have a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone, but at the moment, you probably won’t be able to retain your existing landline number. (BT may be addressing this over the next couple of years)
This can be a problem. When you give up your landline number, you could inadvertently be throwing away access to one of your methods of completing 2FA.
Imagine you have a door that is closed and locked. You now have the need to change the lock. You can do this by first unlocking the door to gain access to the fixings that hold the lock in place. If though, you had lost the key, your door would still be closed and locked and you would have no access to the fixings to change the lock.
So… before you give up an email address, a mobile phone number or landline number and particularly if you move to a Broadband only service, check first that you have logged in to each of your secured online services and updated your 2FA methods to things you know you have continued access to.
