Following Tuesday’s hack of the AP’s Twitter account that temporarily tanked the stock market and showed just how powerful a false tweet can be, Twitter is looking to slowly roll out two-step verification to some users.
According to Wired, Twitter has such a system currently undergoing internal testing, and they will soon begin to roll it out “incrementally.”
Two-step verification, as you probably know, is really any approach to account authentication that involves two layers. Usually, this involves the typical password layer, beefed up by a mobile alert (usually an additional code sent to an account holder’s device). Plenty of companies with online log-ins like Google and Apple have already implemented some version of this security measure.
Back in February, a job posting on Twitter’s employment site suggested that Twitter was getting more serious about two-step verification. The posting, for a software engineer specializing in product security, listed duties to ““design and develop user-facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.”
Two-step verification isn’t a panacea for every product security issue, and it’s not going to prevent every hack. But it is a necessary blockade between your account and the bad guys who wish to use it for nefarious purposes. It’s about time that Twitter launched something like this, and there’s no better time than now – especially after the recent high-profile hacks.