This one simple thing reduced Google account hacks by 50%

It was recently “Safer Internet Day” and Google made a post talking about… how to make the Internet a safer place, obviously. Along with announcing some of their current efforts towards a safer digital world, they also shared some impressive statistics on what they did previously. Google found that after automatically enrolling more than 150 million users in two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication (2FA), the number of hacked accounts decreased by 50%.

For those of you who don’t know how 2FA works, it’s a way to add an extra layer of protection to your accounts. The first factor is your regular old password, and the second factor would be something like a code sent to another one of your devices, or biometrics like your fingerprints. Google fully rolled out 2FA back in October 2021 and made it the default around December. Although they got some complaints about this forced change, the numbers clearly show that it has a great net positive effect.

I’ve always preached that 2FA is a great way to protect your online data and it seems like Google’s data agrees. Most major tech companies have implemented it into their products, like Twitter’s security keys and Grab’s biometric authentication. However, it isn’t a foolproof security method. Hackers have stepped up by deploying various phishing attempts to get victims to send their verification codes. This is where awareness is important to ensure internet users don’t fall for such tactics.

Another way to step up your digital security is to use better passwords. The Mozilla Foundation found that superhero-themed passwords like Superman and Batman have been used hundreds of thousands of times, so if your password is as simple is those, then you should strongly consider using a better one. The easiest way to do this is to use a password manager like BitWarden that can generated strong passwords without you having to memorise them.

Google also announced a partnership with Khan Academy, an online educational platform, by funding USD 5 million (~RM 21 million) to create online safety content. This will have a great impact, as Khan Academy alone has an audience of 18 million monthly users.

They’re also announcing some efforts for the future, such as helping protect high risk users like political or civil rights activist groups. They’re also going to be rolling out opt-in “Account Level Enhanced Safe Browsing”, which actively provides you with security protection against web threats.

Apart from that, Google is also making their products safer by giving users more control over their data. For example, Guest Mode is a Google Assistant feature that doesn’t save your activity in your account, and this feature is being expanded to nine more languages in the coming months. They’ve also just recently launched their VPN by Google One to both Android and iOS.

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