Google is rolling out an update on how to secure access to our account. It gets rid of a painful and not necessarily the most effective method.

Long gone are the days when it was enough to enter our ID and then our password to access an online service. This is still possible, of course, but most of them now offer or even require the addition of an additional layer of security with dual authentication (2FA). Also called two-step validation, it is the system that asks you, for example, to enter a code received by SMS or to identify yourself on a smartphone associated with your fingerprint.

Google has been doing this for a long time. It has changed over time and some of you may remember a time when mobile notification was not the default method. Overall, protecting your Google account with two-step validation is pretty simple. But there is an obligation that can rightly put off. Before you can put it in place, you need to indicate your cell phone number. When you see how easy it is for malicious people to get hold of it, there is reason to hesitate. Fortunately, this is no longer a concern.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO SECURE YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT MORE EASILY NOW
In a blog post, Google announces that you no longer need to provide your mobile number to activate dual authentication. Instead, you can now secure your account using the Google Authenticator application or a physical key. As a reminder, the app gives a single-use code limited in time to enter just after writing your password.

Another interesting change is that disabling two-step validation no longer removes secondary security methods that have been put in place, as was the case before. For example, it is possible not to use 2FA, but to keep the required pass through Google Authenticator or a second smartphone. The update incorporating these changes is being deployed for all users of a personal Google account or Workspace.

Securing your Google account is now much easier than before