The introduction of two-factor authentication (2FA) has made it rather difficult for hackers to gain illicit access to any and all accounts that they might have set their sights on. The only problem with this was that quite a few people seemed hesitant to start using 2FA which Google tried to solve by making it so that 2FA ended up being enabled by default so that users would not have toggle this feature On by themselves.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this change from Google seems to have had a massive impact in the rather brief period of time during which it has been operational. The number of breached accounts has been cut in half among users that have had this feature enabled automatically thanks to the Google update. Around 150 million people have been automatically enrolled into this type of program and all of them will likely have benefited from having done so since it will have reduced the likelihood that their account could get compromised to any degree.
One thing that this news reveals is that 2FA is genuinely helpful if you want to protect your account. The added level of security has been demonstrably effective at preventing account breaches, and Google has revealed that it is trying to do a lot more in order to give its users the level of security that they require. The first feature that is being announced to help make this a reality is a new browsing mode that can automatically prevent you from visiting sites that are widely known to be harmful or dangerous.
Google is also working on giving US politicians a lot more security as the country moves towards midterm elections. This is something that can help make the upcoming elections a great deal more reliable and it is heartening to see a tech company actually helping elections become easier since they have historically caused a lot of problems in that regard. It will be interesting to see what other security focused updates Google ends up implementing in the coming year.
Read next: Buying guides are appearing in some Google search results, a hit or a miss?
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this change from Google seems to have had a massive impact in the rather brief period of time during which it has been operational. The number of breached accounts has been cut in half among users that have had this feature enabled automatically thanks to the Google update. Around 150 million people have been automatically enrolled into this type of program and all of them will likely have benefited from having done so since it will have reduced the likelihood that their account could get compromised to any degree.
One thing that this news reveals is that 2FA is genuinely helpful if you want to protect your account. The added level of security has been demonstrably effective at preventing account breaches, and Google has revealed that it is trying to do a lot more in order to give its users the level of security that they require. The first feature that is being announced to help make this a reality is a new browsing mode that can automatically prevent you from visiting sites that are widely known to be harmful or dangerous.
Google is also working on giving US politicians a lot more security as the country moves towards midterm elections. This is something that can help make the upcoming elections a great deal more reliable and it is heartening to see a tech company actually helping elections become easier since they have historically caused a lot of problems in that regard. It will be interesting to see what other security focused updates Google ends up implementing in the coming year.
Read next: Buying guides are appearing in some Google search results, a hit or a miss?