Twitter users can now use a physical security key to log-in their account

Earlier, a security key could be used as one of the two-factor authentication process. Now, the user has a choice to go all out and just use the security key. The new feature has been rolled out on both mobile and web.

On Twitter’s official blog, it is stated, “While any form of 2FA is better than no 2FA, physical security keys are the most effective. Security keys are small devices that act like keys to your house. Just as you need a physical key to unlock the door to your home, you need a security key to unlock access to your account. Security keys offer the strongest protection for your Twitter account because they have built-in protections to ensure that even if a key is used on a phishing site, the information shared can’t be used to access your account.”

The security keys use the FIDO and WebAuthn security standards to transfer the burden of protecting against phishing attempts from a human to a hardware device. Further, the blog mentions that Security keys can differentiate legitimate sites from malicious ones and block phishing attempts that SMS or verification codes would not.

The blog further added, “In 2018, we added the option to use security keys as one of several 2FA options. However, this initial support only worked for Twitter.com, not the mobile app, and required accounts to have another form of 2FA enabled as well.”