At Google, we have had no reported or confirmed account takeovers due to password phishing since we began requiring security keys as a second factor for our employees. Starting in 2012, we have been working with Yubico and NXP to develop and deploy security keys internally. While any form of 2SV considerably improves user security, sophisticated attacks can sometimes skirt around them to compromise user accounts.

Common approaches include employing advanced phishing protection to filter phishing emails, warning users of suspected phishing attacks, improving user education through training, and implementing traditional two-step verification (2SV) systems that use SMS, code, or push notifications. With phishing attacks only growing in sophistication, many organizations take a defense-in-depth strategy to elevate their security posture. According to the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 41.6% of breaches occurred as a result of stolen passwords, phishing, and pretexting. Enhanced account protectionĪttackers are always looking for new ways to compromise user accounts and access sensitive data. Here’s more on how security keys help protect your accounts, and how the Google-designed firmware in Titan Security Keys verifies their integrity. Titan Security Keys can be used anywhere security keys are supported as a second factor of authentication, including Google’s Advanced Protection Program that is designed for anyone at risk of targeted attacks – like journalists, activists, business leaders, and political campaign teams. Security keys are appropriate for any security-conscious user, and we recommend that all users, especially high value ones such as IT administrators, consider authenticating via security keys. Google considers security keys based on the FIDO standards to be the strongest, most phishing-resistant method of 2-step verification (2SV)-also referred to as two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA)-on the market today. Security keys can help to secure your Google Account as well as other consumer and enterprise services by helping to defend against phishing and other social engineering attacks that attempt to steal user credentials. Starting today, Titan Security Keys are available for purchase on the Google Store. In July, we announced Titan Security Keys, FIDO security keys built with a hardware chip that includes firmware engineered by Google to verify the keys’ integrity.

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