You Can Now Use Your iPhone As A Security Key, Google Announced

Dhir Acharya - Jan 16, 2020


You Can Now Use Your iPhone As A Security Key, Google Announced

Google announced that users of Android 7+ could use their smartphones as physical security keys. This ability has now been extended to iPhones.

In 2019, Google announced that users of Android 7 or newer versions could use their smartphones as physical security keys. This ability has now been extended to iPhones.

This is part of the Advanced Protection Program that helps protect the accounts of those at high risks of phishing attacks such as bankers, activists, executives, journalists, politicians, as well as others whose online presence is significant. Regular users can benefit from this too.

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However, the program required users to have a physical security key on a separate device, which is inconvenient for the average user. So allowing smartphones as security keys is much better because everyone has one with them now.

Android users just need to connect their smartphones through Bluetooth, but iPhone users have to do an extra step. After enabling two-factor authentication, iOS users have to download the Smart Lock app for activating a security key. Then, they can head to the official website of the Advanced Protection Program to enroll.

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Compared with two-factor authentication, a physical security key is less vulnerable to bad actors because it requires anyone that accesses your account to be near you.

In recent years, especially in the past one year, security has become a more and more concerned problem. The reason for more hacks, cyber-attacks, among other problems is that today devices are easily and often connected with one another for convenience and better productivity. That makes it more difficult for users to control all their accounts and devices while bad actors have more holes and flaws to take advantage of. Let’s hope that we can count more on tech giants to come up with better security measures so that we can better protect ourselves.

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