In 1995, AT&T patented the idea of two-factor authentication (2FA). They said that to identify an authorized user, a system needed to check at least two of three factors: something they have, something they are, or something they know. But the early systems were clunky, hard to manage, and only used in environments that needed the most security. Today, the industry has come a long way and there are several different choices for 2FA with some more secure than others: SMS, Email, Authenticator Soft Tokens, Push, and Universal 2nd Factor (U2F). In this show, we talk about how each works and the relative security merits of each.

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