two-factor authentication (noun)
Oct 20, 2026 · 11 min · 8 segments
Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. An authentication process that requires two different factors before granting access. CyberWire Glossary link…
Oct 20, 2026 · 11 min · 8 segments
Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. An authentication process that requires two different factors before granting access. CyberWire Glossary link…
Rick HowardHost
And authentication, as in granting resource access to a person, device, or software object.
Definition, an authentication process that requires two different factors before granting access.
In the 2011 hack of the company RSA Security, APT1 hackers stole the seed values for the RSA SecureID token product, the two-factor authentication device that was used by tens of millions of users in government and military agencies, defense contractors, banks, and countless corporations around the world.
In the 1960s, when computers started to become an essential tool for big business and government, the late great Dr. Fernando Corbato, one of computing's founding fathers, introduced the idea of using passwords to grant access to mainframe computers and limit computer time to individual users.
Unbeknownst to him, Corbado provided a long list of cyber narrative wells, a never-ending attack vector, to break into computer systems.
In fairness, though, passwords didn't start to really break down as an authentication system until the internet started humming for online transactions circa the mid-1990s.
But by the 1980s, with the ARPANET slowly morphing into the Internet, the computer user population started to grow.
The community needed more robust authentication methods for business-critical systems.
In the mid-1980s, Security Dynamics Technologies was the first company to create a hardware token device that created one-time passwords for authentication.
They said that to identify an authorized user, a system needed to check at least two of three factors.
Something they have, like a smartphone, something they are, like a fingerprint, or something they know, like a password.
But the early systems were clunky, hard to manage, and used only environments that needed the most security.
It wasn't until the smartphones started to emerge in the mid-2000s when that situation started to change.
That led to all kinds of innovation in terms of various two-factor authentication methods.
The user ID password pair rest stop would be just a mile out of OMG, just slightly better than having no credentials at all.
It's 75 miles away from Nirvana because it doesn't exactly qualify as a second factor.
An email account is unique to a user like a password, but you can access it from anywhere.
And authentication, as in granting resource access to a person, device, or software object.
Definition, an authentication process that requires two different factors before granting access.
In the 2011 hack of the company RSA Security, APT1 hackers stole the seed values for the RSA SecureID token product, the two-factor authentication device that was used by tens of millions of users in government and military agencies, defense contractors, banks, and countless corporations around the world.
In the 1960s, when computers started to become an essential tool for big business and government, the late great Dr. Fernando Corbato, one of computing's founding fathers, introduced the idea of using passwords to grant access to mainframe computers and limit computer time to individual users.
Unbeknownst to him, Corbado provided a long list of cyber narrative wells, a never-ending attack vector, to break into computer systems.
In fairness, though, passwords didn't start to really break down as an authentication system until the internet started humming for online transactions circa the mid-1990s.
But by the 1980s, with the ARPANET slowly morphing into the Internet, the computer user population started to grow.
The community needed more robust authentication methods for business-critical systems.
In the mid-1980s, Security Dynamics Technologies was the first company to create a hardware token device that created one-time passwords for authentication.
They said that to identify an authorized user, a system needed to check at least two of three factors.
Something they have, like a smartphone, something they are, like a fingerprint, or something they know, like a password.
But the early systems were clunky, hard to manage, and used only environments that needed the most security.
It wasn't until the smartphones started to emerge in the mid-2000s when that situation started to change.
That led to all kinds of innovation in terms of various two-factor authentication methods.
The user ID password pair rest stop would be just a mile out of OMG, just slightly better than having no credentials at all.
It's 75 miles away from Nirvana because it doesn't exactly qualify as a second factor.
An email account is unique to a user like a password, but you can access it from anywhere.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.