Why Brands Need Two-Factor Authentication on Twitte

Major brands with a presence on Twitter are being encouraged to implement Twitter's new two-factor authentication feature to help ward off hackers, and for good reason. If you look at recent hacks against companies such as Burger King, The Onion and the Associated Press — which even negatively impacted financial markets — it's clear that Twitter has become a hotbed for account hijacking. Finally, companies can increase their chances of warding off such attacks.

Before Wednesday, all users were logging in to Twitter the same way — those with two followers and those with 2 million. Now, Twitter added a security method called login verification, which is essentially like double-locking your door at night to decrease the chances of an intruder breaking in.

The two-factor authentication is SMS-based, which means Twitter sends a code in a text message to users' phones each time they want to log in. The code is generated when someone tries to log in; the code changes after each login attempt.  Read more…