I spent the weekend switching 2FA services, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy

I would rather wish that I could avoid some tech-adjacent chores forever. I can’t tell you how long I’ve put off cleaning my PC of dust bunnies, or organizing my tech cupboard with a system that doesn’t hinge entirely on broken boxes and serpentine piles of cables. But as I discovered this past month, none of these tasks quite compares to switching to a new two-factor authentication (2FA) service.

2FA, sometimes called MFA (multi-factor authentication), is one of the many pillars of my online security strategy. It works by issuing a time-based one-time code (TOTP) that serves as a secondary proof of identity when logging in to a service. If 2FA is enabled on a service and you don’t have a 2FA code to go with it, any sign-in attempt will fail. If passwords are my door locks, 2FA codes are the slam gates. They keep my various personal accounts beyond the reach of bad actors, even if they gain the keys to my digital castles.

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