Understanding Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): The Technology Behind Your Digital Security
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Science and Technology - Awareness in the fields of IT, Computers, Cyber Security. Key terms like 2FA, OTP, TOTP, HMAC, Hash functions are very important.
Mains:
General Studies Paper 3 (S&T and Security): Basics of cyber security; Challenges to internal security through communication networks; Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
Key Highlights from the News
Passwords alone do not provide sufficient security for online accounts, so Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) as an additional security measure is becoming widespread.
The basic principle of 2FA is to prove your identity in two different ways:
Something you know: Your password.
Something you have: An authenticator app on your phone.
Technology like Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) is used by apps such as Google Authenticator. This provides a six-digit code that changes every 30 seconds.
How it works: When you set up 2FA, your app and the service's server share a secret key. Later, using this secret key and the current time, both generate the same six-digit code at the same time. When the code you provide matches the code on the server, login is possible.
Highly secure cryptographic technologies like Hash functions and HMAC are used to generate these codes.
Since the code changes every 30 seconds, even if someone sees a code, it quickly becomes unusable.
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