Getting root access can significantly damage the security of your apps and make the device prone to getting viruses and errors. Manually Extract Your Credentials Note: There are many ways to manually transfer Google Authenticator if you have an Android smartphone with root access to it. Switch all your tokens in all your accounts to new.Ģ. If it wasn’t you, who moved the Google Authenticator tokens to a new phone, take actions. The tokens you’ve selected will be transferred.īesides, you’ll see a notification “Accounts were recently exported” in your old app. Scan the QR code you have on your old phone.Now open Google Authenticator on your new Android phone.You have to scan this QR code with the Google Authenticator app on your new phone. Select accounts you’d like to transfer to a new phone and tap Next.Tap the menu button at the top-right of the app and choose Transfer accounts.Open Google Authenticator on your old Android phone.Download and install Google Authenticator application on your new smartphone.Here is a step-by-step guide for your convenience: It’s enough to tap one button on the Google Authenticator on your old phone, the app will generate a QR code, and then you’ll need to scan this QR code with the Google Authenticator application on your new Android phone. There is no need to turn off two-factor authentication on all your accounts and activate it again. If you use an iPhone, please, see the instructions in the next paragraph or here. Unfortunately, this feature is available only for Android phones so far. We are talking about a brand new “Transfer accounts” feature added to Google Authenticator recently. If you use Google Authenticator on Android smartphone, now there is an easier way to transfer it to a new phone. Use a built-in Google Authenticator feature Transfer Accounts Please, mind, if it really happens and someone steals your secret key, they will still need to know your user password, so make sure it’s not a simple combination to guess.Īndroid 1. Keep the screenshot very secure though, if someone in your vicinity finds it they can access your data. When you first set up your Google Authenticator simply make a screenshot of the barcode with the secret key. This is by far the easiest way to never lose access to your account. | Read also: Mobile Authentication Pros and Cons 2. Google Authenticator backup codes have their perks, but you have to be ready for the drawbacks as well. You can lose the paper or destroy it by mistake.You do not have them at hand at all times. Other things that you might want to keep in mind when it comes to printed out backup codes: Granted, the intruder will have to be among your peers and know the user password, but you know… things happen. An intruder can easily copy them if they are in physical vicinity and use them to gain access to your account. But what do you do with the websites which do not support backup codes?Īnother point against Google Authenticator backup codes is – they are as secure as a password written down on a paper. Some of these websites provide backup codes, and a user can gain access to these websites if his/her smartphone is lost. It is imperative to understand that Google Authenticator is a multi-token, thus you can enroll many tokens for various websites using one app. Operating principle is pretty much the same for all the software OTP tokens – they generate authentication codes for logging into your account right on your smartphone. – Newton Lee, Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awarenessįrom all available options of one-time passwords generation or delivery (SMS, emails, hardware and software tokens) most people choose Google Authenticator or other similar applications like Authy, Protectimus Smart etc. “As the world is increasingly interconnected, everyone shares the responsibility of securing cyberspace.” So why two-factor verification is still unpopular? Sure, it creates an extra step to take to log in, but most users omit it not because of this extra time and effort, but because they are afraid of losing access to their credentials if something goes wrong with their authentication devices. It also complicates man-in-the-middle and man-in-the-browser attacks. Thus, two-factor authentication protects from brute force, keyloggers, most cases of phishing and social engineering. If you use two-factor verification, an intruder would need to get both the unique password you came up with, and the gadget, which produces the verification codes, to break into your account. In the contemporary world, where database leaks are a standing affair, two-step authentication is not an option, it is, in fact, a must. Our regular readers know that we strongly recommend applying two-step verification wherever it’s possible.
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