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Comment by solarkraft

4 days ago

In Germany and I think the whole EU 2 factor authentication is mandatory, for which the favored implementation is an app. SMS TAN is out, the alternative is a secondary device you stick your card into.

Do you need a proprietary app for that? TOTP is fine, you can just pick your own.

  • Haven't seen a bank offering software TOTP in Poland. Over a decade ago, before smartphones became ubiquitous, I've seen a bank offering a physical TOTP device. These days, as far as I've seen, it's either SMS codes or single use codes on a physical scratch cards (haven't seen one in 5 years, though), or in-app confirmation.

  • Yes and they tend to be shoddily programmed security theater. My bank makes me use SecureGo plus, which goes as far as redirecting you to a website telling you screenshots aren’t allowed when you try to document its latest glitch (which may be another misguided “security” feature, who knows).