Google’s Two Step Authentication System

Last Monday, my younger brother lost his Google account. He was accessing his Gmail from a public internet booth and as per his knowledge, he had successfully logged out from the system. But when he tried to login to his email in the evening he got his account hacked and he couldn’t login to that account. After  my arrival I tried to recover his password, but the hacker has already changed the secondary email address and also the phone number. I had applied to get back the access to that account by filling up the form. But this evening I got the reply from the Gmail team as follows:

“Unfortunately, based on the information you provided, we were unable to verify that you own this account. To ensure that we are not compromising the security of the data, we can’t return the account at this time.”

At the same time I was searching for some added security options and found the recent article on Google Blog. The Google team has recently added this feature to make your Gmail  and Google account more secure. This is called as Two Step Authentication System. If you wish to use this system for your Google Account, You need to use a verification code along with your user name and password. This verification code will be sent to your mobile phone or land phone number through SMS or a phone call. However the Mobile number verification is a required step before you can use the 2 step verification system. So you have to add the mobile number and verify it with your Google Account.

How To Setup Google Two Step Authentication System

• Login to Gmail
• Click on the “Settings” option on the upper right corner.
• Inside “Settings” click on “Accounts and Import” tab and scroll down.
• Find the “Google Account settings” link and click on that.
• On the next page find and click on the link “Using 2-step verification”
• In the wizard section you need to add the mobile number. Google will send the verification code to this mobile number.
• You can verify the account with the code by choosing any of the 3 options. You can use the “Google Authenticatr” app for iPhone, android or blackberry phones or choose the option to get the code through SMS (Works for any device) or to get the code through a voice call (this will work even if you have a land line number).

How to Use Google Two Step Authentication For Logging In

After activating the Google Two Step Authentication, log out from the Google account and try to login again to see how it works.

• Go to Gmail.com
• put your username and password
• click on the “Sign in” button.
• The next page will ask you the verification code.
• You can’t loging in without the code.
• If you forget the code, you can click on the “Ger a new verification code” link and the code will reach to your Mobile phone.
• You can use the “Remember verification for this computer” option, if you don’t wish to put the code again and again in the same computer.

My Idea for a Secure Google Account :

Just before some days I was thinking of another way, little similar to the Two Step Authentication System. As per my idea:

When somebody wants to change his password or secondary email,  a verification code will be sent to the mobile number he is using. After putting that code he can only change the password or secondary email address. This will prevent a hacker to change your password and the secondary email address. On the other hand when somebody wants to change his Mobile number, a verification code will be sent to his secondary email. This will also prevent the hacker from changing the registered mobile number. And this hardly happens that any user loses his mobile number as well as access from his secondary email address. If this system can be implemented by Google team, then innocent users like my brother will never lose their accounts.