Last month Derrick wrote an intriguing piece on steps to take to keep you mobile device safe. In it, he recommends setting up 2-step verification on your Google accounts. In 2014, an estimated 17.6 million Americans were victims of identity theft simply proving Derrick’s point that every possible step should be taken to secure your information.
For this reason, AndroidGuys recommends enabling Google’s 2-step verification on all of your Google accounts. This will increase the security any place you use your Google account, whether it be Gmail, Hangouts, Google Drive etc.
Setting up 2-Step Verification
As with many of their other services, Google makes the setup very easy with a step-by-step walkthrough that is very clearly defined.
- Open Google’s 2-Step Verification page and click “Get Started”.
- Sign into your Google account and click “Start Setup”.
- Choose a phone number to associate with your account.
- Choose how you would like to receive your codes.
- Verify the code that was sent.
- Decide whether or not to trust your current device.
- Click “Confirm”.
The numbered images below correspond to the step numbers above
Now that you have some added security to your account there are some additional things to keep in mind. If you use desktop apps like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to access your Gmail account you will need to create an App Specific password for these applications. Also, I highly recommend using Google’s Authenticator app to receive your passcodes.
Now that wasn’t too hard, right? Five minutes of your time and some easy clicking is well worth knowing my data is safe. Have you ever been a victim of data theft? What apps do you use to keep your information safe? Let us know down in the comments how you keep safe?
Update: August 24, 2021
