One-Time Passwords Make Facebook Login More Secure

Paranoid people may get some relief

Oct 13 2010, 9:38am CDT | by Jordan Cressman

One-Time Passwords Make Facebook Login More Secure

Never again will you have to worry about all of your stalkers figuring out your password when you sign into Facebook from a public computer.

The solution is what Facebook calls "one-time passwords."

It works like this. Users send the text "otp" to the number 32665. They then receive a text message for the username associated with that phone, which contains a randomly generated password.

That becomes their Facebook password for the next 20 minutes, after which time it reverts back to their old password. The idea is meant to bring more privacy and security to the site that is now probably considered many users' most important online destination.

"We're launching one-time passwords to make it safer to use public computers in places like hotels, cafes or airports. If you have any concerns about security of the computer you're using while accessing Facebook, we can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password," wrote product manager Jake Brill in a Facebook blog.

Earlier this year, Facebook introduced a feature that allows users to remotely log out of Facebook. So if you leave the library and suddenly realize you forgot to log out, you can just use your phone to do the deed. Because Facebook constantly refreshes itself, the account will be cleared out even if no one is sitting at the computer.

Facebook one-time passwords are currently being rolled out to select users. It'll be available to everybody later this month.

Via PC World

Updates

MP3 Toolkit offers all the MP3 Tools you will ever need

Source: GHacks Technology News

When it comes to mp3 files, you sometimes may need a set of tools to edit, convert or even rip them in first place. While you can use specialized tools for that which provide you with some of the functionality that you may need, a set of tools that ...
Full article at: GHacks Technology News More like this 6 hours ago

How will G-Cloud save £340m? 'Er, not sure,' says Whitehall

Source: ZDNet UK

COMMENT Asking for budget for an IT project with figures you can't explain and that double within a year is generally frowned upon in the private sector. Not so in Whitehall, it seems. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude t ...
Full article at: ZDNet UK More like this 6 hours ago

Bankia and BFA merger not on the table for now: chairman

Source: Hartford Courant

MADRID (Reuters) - Bankia's chairman said on Saturday that a merger of the troubled bank with its parent group BFA was not on the table for now. The two entities asked for a 19 billion euro ($23.77 billion) state b ...
Full article at: Hartford Courant More like this 8 hours ago