Protecting Your Google Account: 2-Step Verification

You cannot be too careful in today’s world of constant hacking attacks by cybercriminals. Your email account is, perhaps, your most important online account because resetting passwords for your other online sites, like your banking and financial accounts, is done through email. Two-step verification adds a second step to signing into your account, by sending a text message or verification to your smartphone that you must have in addition to your password. In other words, 2-step verification requires you to enter your password— something you know—and a text to your smartphone—something you have—in order to sign into your account. Even if someone discovers your password, they cannot access your account unless they have physical possession of your smartphone. That makes breaking into your email account almost impossible!

1. Open your Google account at myaccount.google.com. You’ll need to sign in as a security precaution.
2. Click Security.
3. In the Password & sign-in method, click 2-Step Verification (1). Click Get Started (2) to complete the process of adding a smartphone number to your account.