Mark Cobb

September 7, 2016

The Limits of SMS for 2-Factor Authentication

This post was originally published on this siteA recent ping from a reader reminded me that I’ve been meaning to blog about the security limitations of using cell phone text messages for two-factor authentication online. The reader’s daughter had received a text message claiming to be from Google, warning that her Gmail account had been locked because someone in India had tried to access her account. The young woman was advised to expect a 6-digit verification code to be sent to her and to reply to the scammer’s message with that code. Mark Cobb, a computer technician in Reno, Nev., said […]
September 7, 2016

The Limits of SMS for 2-Factor Authentication

This post was originally published on this siteA recent ping from a reader reminded me that I’ve been meaning to blog about the security limitations of using cell phone text messages for two-factor authentication online. The reader’s daughter had received a text message claiming to be from Google, warning that her Gmail account had been locked because someone in India had tried to access her account. The young woman was advised to expect a 6-digit verification code to be sent to her and to reply to the scammer’s message with that code. Mark Cobb, a computer technician in Reno, Nev., said […]