Twitter’s changes to its user security settings around two-factor authentication are a “desperate drive” to save the company money rather than protect users, a cybersecurity expert has claimed. Graham Cluley said Twitter’s decision to only allow paying subscribers to its Twitter Blue programme to use a text message to confirm their identity when logging it to the site would leave “many users worse-protected”.
Over the weekend Twitter users began receiving a message telling them that text message-based two-factor authentication (2FA) was being moved into the Twitter Blue subscription – and that anyone who did not want to join the pay monthly subscription must stop using the security feature or lose access to Twitter. The company said the new policy would take effect on March 20.
Two-factor authentication is a security feature designed to make online accounts more secure as it requires users to confirm who they are using a second log-in method after entering their username and password. Currently, Twitter users can opt to receive an automatically generated text message containing a code – which is sent to the phone number linked to their account – and use this code to complete their login.
