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Comment by Soliah

12 years ago

I've been using Authy[1] without any problems on iOS7. Great thing is that it can also be used for other services that use OTP (AWS, Cloudflare, Facebook etc).

[1] https://www.authy.com/

Count me as another vote for Authy. One more amazing feature: Your tokens stick to your Authy account instead of your physical device. If you need to restore your phone or delete the app, you don't need to disable two-factor on all your accounts and then set it up again.

Just reinstall Authy, reauthorize with your Authy account, and you're done! Helped me countless times, from when I had to rebuild my iOS install because of a backup problem to when I got a replacement device due to a hardware issue.

  • Doesn't giving the device keys to a third party, while also authenticating using a password with that third party, sort of defeat the whole purpose of two-factor authentication?

    • Yes.

      Unfortunately, their marketing is highly convincing. Most people (even most engineers) won't realize the tradeoff here: Authy replaces "two factor authorization" with "two password authorization". It should be clear which is more secure.

      The "two factors" with GA are a knowledge factor (something you know - your password) and a possession factor (something you have - your phone number for SMS or phone for GA app).

      See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication

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