Twitter is planning to introduce two-factor authentication to strengthen users’ account security following a sophisticated cyber attack.
The company said that in the recent cyber attack hackers stole user names and passwords for about 250,000 users.
Twitter, which has 200 million active users per month, said passwords for the affected accounts were reset after the attack.
The social networking site revealed in a job posting that it is is planning to hire a software engineer to help implement two-factor authentication system. After hiring, the software engineer will be responsible for designing and developing user-facing security features like multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.
The work of the software engineer will impact the security of hundreds of millions of Twitter users. According to the Guardian, two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of safety to any service, as well as effectively alerting the true owner when attempts are made to hijack the account.
Guardian said the two-factor authentication blocks access from new devices or internet addresses, even when using the correct password, unless accompanied by a short numerical code that is sent separately to the account owner’s mobile phone.
Apart from Twitter, other firms like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon Web Services and Dropbox have introduced multi-factor authentication in the past few years.
Content from our partners
