NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Google introducing optional 2-factor login security
Google introducing optional 2-factor login security
http://bit.ly/bW3jrQ (Official Google Enterprise Blog)
This is indeed a very useful feature, and it's unfortunate that more
sites (particularly financial institutions) don't offer it to most
customers. While the initial deployment is for Google Enterprise
Apps users, it will reportedly become available to all users within
some months.
A number of persons sent me notes this morning suggesting that this
announcement was an attempt by Google to divert attention from the
recently revealed Barksdale case -- involving a Google engineer accused
of illicitly accessing teenagers' Google data ("In Perspective:
Alleged Snooping at Teens' Data by Google Engineer":
http://bit.ly/9WkmTd (Lauren's Blog).
The "diversion" scenario seems highly unlikely -- and wouldn't be
successful in any case. The Barksdale situation isn't going to just
vanish under the weight of a specific login security announcement,
which is essentially orthogonal to the specific issues involved in
that matter. Also, login security deployments like that announced
today require considerable planning over periods of time.
That said, I would be remiss if I didn't note that multiple-factor
(actually, multiple-person) access and notification techniques of
various sorts are frequently applicable to environments where internal
access to customer data needs to be rigorously controlled.
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator