Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor Authentication [telecom]

Feb 19, 2018 3 Replies
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Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor Authentication [telecom] open original image

Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor Authentication



by Josh Centers



If you follow recommended security practices, you use two-factor authentication on every online service that allows it. For those who aren't familiar with two-factor authentication, it makes it so a username and password is no longer sufficient to log into your account



- you must also provide a six-digit time-based one-time password that is either sent to your phone via SMS text message or generated by an app.



(Then there's Apple's two-factor authentication for Apple ID-protected logins, which relies on Apple-proprietary communication channels and devices and thus breaks the usual conventions, see "Apple Implements Two-Factor Authentication for Apple IDs," 21 March



2013.)

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If you have a prepaid phones such as Tracfone, AT&T Prepaid and possibly others, they will not accept a six digit short text SMS IF, IF, IF the account is located in a European country. For example, I have a bank account in a European country. If I try to login to that account using either a Tracfone or an AT&T Prepaid, the bank sends the

6 digit code but it is never received by my phones. I personally talked to tech support of both services and they confirmed that they do not provide SMS short text for International services. (Mexico and Canada may be exceptions)
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This issue is mostly likely not about countries, but about agreements:

  1. Not all companies have interconnection agreements between them
  2. The bank's agreement with their provider might not cover US numbers, as the cost of such texts is higher.

Spyros Bartsocas

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In the case of Tracfone and AT&T Prepaid, their tech support people said it was a matter of cost. Providing SMS short text from countries outside the US costs them more so they don't provide that service for their prepaid phones. FWIW, with a full service T-Mobile phone, I can receive SMS short text from those countries.

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