Google will offer a physical security key to upgrade two-factor authentication for certain high-profile users:
The Alphabet Inc. company next month will begin offering a service called the Advanced Protection Program that places a collection of features onto accounts such as email, including a new block on third-party applications from accessing data. The program would effectively replace the need to use two-factor authentication to protect accounts with a pair of physical security keys. The company plans to market the product to corporate executives, politicians and others with heightened security concerns, these people said.
The Gmail messages of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman, were famously hacked last year, along with the databases of the Democratic National Committee. Podesta met with the House Intelligence Committee in June to discuss the hack.
[...] The new service will block all third-party programs from accessing a user's emails or files stored on Google Drive, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the product isn't yet public. The program will be updated with new features to protect user data on an on-going basis.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 02 2017, @08:33PM (1 child)
It's unclear to me that normal folks will be prevented from adopting this security measure. I wrestled with that question for a hot minute while submitting this. However:
That suggests to me that this is not for normal folks and that it will be priced accordingly. That's not unheard of for Google. They used to have a $399/year version of Google Earth aimed towards media outlets and others. G Suite [wikipedia.org] costs $60-120/year per user. Maybe Google will make this feature an add-on to G Suite.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @08:46PM
It'll almost assuredly be a G Suite feature for nothing less than G Suite Business.