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Two-step verification comes to Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage

After the huge snafu last year where a number of iCloud accounts were breached and sensitive information was stolen, Apple has rolled out more security measures for some other iOS features.

FaceTime, Apple’s video chat application and iMessage, its online text service, will be getting two-step verification. This means that you will have to enter a unique app-specific code in order to gain access to the application.

The two-step verification process will be made available in iPad, iPhone and Mac computers.

“It’s really great to see Apple extending its two-step authentication to cover more services, particularly person-to-person communication services such as these, which have been so widely abused in the past,” Rik Ferguson, vice president of security research at Trend Micro, told The Guardian.

It’s a very secure way of locking things down, because even if hackers have your Apple ID password they won’t be able to access the apps without having knowledge of this unique code. However, Ferguson explained that two-step authentication is by no means a fool-proof way to secure your phone, tablet or computer, as there are still ways around the security measure.

“Two-step authentication is simply two sets of something that you know. The ability to enter to enter the SMS-based password doesn’t depend on your ownership of the smartphone, only your access to the text message. If attackers can divert the calls or messages of that device, for example by calling the mobile service provider, this two-step authentication can and has already been subverted.”

If you are already logged into either service, you won’t need to input two-step verification, but if you log out of a service and attempt to go back in, it will be triggered.

[Source – The Guardian]

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