DON’T Link Your Phone Number on Your Google Account
We all think we know what we need to do online to stay safe. It’s pretty basic: Change up your passwords, don’t give out personal information and watch your privacy settings. But it turns out that one thing we were doing that we thought made our accounts more secure was actually making them more vulnerable. Eeeek!
So Google tells you that you should add a recovery phone number to your account in case you ever forget your password or something. You may have done this, thinking it would benefit you in the long run. Well, according to a Medium post by Vijay Pandurangan, an engineer and businessman, it does NOT.
Basically, if you use Google’s verification via text option, the only thing a hacker will need to get into your account is the verification sent via text message to your number. And your telephone is actually not all that secure. It’s fairly easy for hackers to see your messages by convincing your telephone company to give out your number, Pandurangan said.
So if you really want a secure Google account, you should activate the site’s two-step verification with Google Authenticator. The app is a more secure way of verifying that it’s really you trying to get into your account. Stay safe out there, guys.
How do you keep safe online? Let us know @BritandCo!
(Photo via Getty)