The Practical Guide To Mac Security: Part 4, Two-Factor Authentication

[@desertpatient]

Thank you. I really did not want to go to Two-Factor authentication from you previous series. I thought it would be a total pain. But I do feel safer and not to much of a pain. What a strange world we now live in...growing up in the 50's we did not even have keys for the house and the car key was oft left in the lock....

[@briantdaniel9280]

Your Apple ID password should be strong yet easy to remember WITH two-factor authentication. If you are ever in a situation where you have lost or your iPhone has been stolen and your trusted devices are not around, you want to be able to access iCloud com on a public computer. You can access find my iPhone even without the 2FA code to mark your iPhone lost and locate it. All your other iCloud data will be locked. Fantastic series Gary! Thank you!

[@javtimestwo]

Take a bow, Gary! This was a fantastic video. Mostly because towards the end you provided 2 examples how to use the two-factor feature and how easy it is to get started and completed. Users and viewers like me learn these tasks from you and I cannot say thank you enough 👏🏽

[@Seringapatam]

Probably the most important series of videos I’ve ever watched, great stuff Gary, thank you 😊

[@BillLund]

Thanks for the video. I've decided to enable second factor authentication for all of my financial accounts.

[@DeeEllEff]

Excellent choice! I’m always amazed by people who think 2FA is just too big a hassle. As opposed to having accounts drained or your identity stolen? I ask ‘em: if it were legal, would you drive w/o auto insurance?

[@mystiquemetal]

in minute 14, you can now instead of using google authenticator, scan the QR code with the iphone camera and it will asociate it with the google password and save it to icloud. the codes will be authomatically populated when loging in without using any authenticator app. Apple devices come with a native authenticator I dont know if this is new but it is great because it is native. Hopefully you make a video showing apple authenticator in action

[@Wedgetail96]

Apple already have my phone details, so happy to set that up. However there has to be a better way of 2FA, then supplying information hungry organizations like Google with more of my personal information (phone number in this case).

[@RobertKeenanComp-U-Right]

Hello Gary, Thanks for doing this important topic. I would like to know if I need to have the Text App open always on my Mac to receive the prompts for codes?

[@macmost]

The Messages app? You don't have to have it open to get messages. You should get a notification and can open it any time to read your messages.

[@sbeckas]

I guess I will be unable to sign up for 2FA. When I am away from home-I do not have a mobile phone. I do have iPads when I am away from home and connected to a free wifi area-but email options for codes are not offered only text or phone.

[@lmansur1000]

Very important part of using computers. Thanks for the course!

[@MartinBielkovic]

how do i turn it off

[@theoneD1]

What annoys me sometimes about 2-factor is that if you have bad reception in your area, you wont receive anything and so sometimes your forced to resend the code again and if the reception is still bad, you just give up sometimes, but then at some point in the morning, all of a sudden your codes get sent to you twice. Then it freaks you out coz your wondering if someone is trying to log into your account. =/

[@abhisheksingla794]

How do you setup dual factor for initial login for domain joined Macbook

[@stefanol9272]

Hi Gary thanks for another very useful video, I remember when you made the video do I need a antivirus I was almost in the middle of buying a 2 year plan ! but stumbled into your video where you explained that no need for that. That was just one example so thanks to you I save overall quite some money. 😎😎✌️✌️✌️

[@liususan4018]

Thank you so much!

[@adasopatis]

Great video series, thank you! Any suggestions for when the apple generated pw does not "conform" with the website's pw requirements? There doesn't seem to be a way to edit the suggested pw, to meet the website's requirements.

[@macmost]

You can try to edit out the characters it doesn't like. This is an old practice that should have been replaced with two-factor on any site that tried to do it. I rarely see it now.

[@elliot9688]

If we're about to upgrade from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 14 and we're using apple's built in authenticator on various web sites, do we have to remove the two factor protection from each site and re-install it later or will it carry over to the new phone via iCloud?

[@macmost]

Do you mean using two-factor for non-Apple sites? Like you have those saved in iCloud? You don't have to do anything special.

[@elliot9688]

@@macmost Hi Gary and thanks for the reply! Yes, like if I've used the iOS authenticator as 2FA for my Google or PayPal accounts, will the codes carry over to the new phone or should I remove the current device as the 2FA for those accounts and re-apply it with the new phone?

[@macmost]

@@elliot9688 Those passwords (and other parts like two-factor) are in iCloud and they would appear on all of your devices.

[@elz50]

hey Gary, i've got a question for you: how do you record the sound on your computer on a screen recording?

[@macmost]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pF6odIuklpabn7s

[@garyackers1469]

Hi Gary following all your advice in this security sessions….very informative an pleasantly surprised how easy you make it for us troglodytes…lol …keep up the good work 😉😉

[@SusanBame]

I tried to set up 2 factor authentication for the iPhone and the message came back that it was not available for my account. Tried to 2-factor the Macbook; same deal. Would not set it up. Could never get the verification code.

[@macmost]

Is one of your devices using a much older OS? Which country are you in?

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Excellent video tutorial today! Thanks for showing us how. Thank you, Gary! 👏👍🏻❤️

[@jaysgood10]

Hi Gary, I’m trying to setup iCloud mail on android. I’ve gone to the Apple ID site and got the special password but it doesn’t work. Tried several times. HELP!

[@macmost]

Hard for me to help with something like that. Just look over your settings in your phone's mail app very carefully.

[@DadofMuffy]

Can you show how to use YubiKey?

[@macmost]

Never used it, sorry.

[@andreas_moller]

What if you use chrome as an apple user?

[@macmost]

Then use Chrome's password manager or a third-party one, or just use two-factor in whatever way is most convenient. But don't skip using two-factor.

[@KJSvitko]

Great information and useful for many people. There are just way too many text scams, phishing emails and scam phone calls these days. Anything you can do to increase the security of your accounts is helpful. Please do a video on educating people about phishing scams in email and texts as well a phone scams.

[@macmost]

I've got one in the course coming up soon...

[@ranelrimas6523]

Suddenly stopped accepting my codes for some reason. Repeated the process and still not working. Help anyone?

[@macmost]

You'll need to call the support for whatever service you are trying to log into.

[@ChasMusic]

I understand that text messages can be hijacked. It would be nice to be able to have 3FA.

[@macmost]

That is why so much 2FA now is happening using apps instead of SMS. But even so, 2FA with SMS is better than no 2FA. Someone really needs to be out to get you to attack you with an SMS hijack. Otherwise, it is much easier to get accounts via weak passwords or phishing.

[@Smartiebob317]

Gary, I am getting a sore brain 🧠. I'll never remember all of this stuff. 🤔

[@dljensen9882]

Do you help people virtually via Team Viewer? i am in deep ------

[@macmost]

No, sorry, I don't do that sort of thing.

[@jun_suzuki42]

Great news, iOS15 now comes built in authenticator!

[@wrnrt]

Video is NOT about MFA or 2FA to LOGIN on a mac. Just general chatter.

[@macmost]

Login ON a Mac? Like to your user account? This is about using 2FA to log in to online accounts. It explains why you should be using it (I sounds like you probably already are, so you don't need convincing). I know some security people would already say you have a second factor when logging in to your Mac: physical access.