How to Protect Your Account

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How to Protect Your Account

Using just your username and password to log into a website is called one-factor authentication. If your email was stolen, a hacker would only need your password or could try different passwords to access your account. 

Two-factor authentication requires another check. On altFINS this is done by an app on your phone that gives out a code that you need to enter in addition to your password. This extra check makes it much more difficult to get hacked since a hacker would need to get hold of your phone.

Two-factor authentication, TFA or 2FA, is a more secure way of sign-in that requires more than just a password. Without TFA, the account is less secure, because the password is the only security factor (layer of the security) in that case. 2FA provides an extra security layer by requiring additional information to sign in. This additional information is a code that’s generated on your smartphone or tablet. This code is generated by special security applications (for example, Google Authenticator or any other from your App Store or Playmarket).

In the case of altFINS, two factors of security include: something you know (a unique username and password) and something you have (a smartphone or tablet) to approve authentication requests.

Further reading: Google Authenticator (iOS)Google Authenticator (Android)TFA in Wikipedia.

Step 1

Download “Google Authenticator” app on your phone

Step 2

Go to User > Profile tab of your account, then select MFA tab and check Enabled:

Step 3

Open your Google Authenticator app and usually to add it, you need to press the “+” symbol on the bottom right corner of the app or follow instructions to add an account or scan the barcode.

Step 4

Scan the altFINS barcode using your Google Authenticator app and enter the code from your app in the box under point 2. Be sure to write down your recovery codes for safe keeping (do not store these in your email or share them with anybody else).

Step 5

Never share your password or 2FA code with anyone including anyone who says they are altFINS staff (altFINS staff will never ask you for these).