It’s great that Facebook is strengthening security by using two-factor authentication. People share so much personal information on Facebook that relying on a s

It’s great that Facebook is strengthening security by using two-factor authentication. People share so much personal information on Facebook that relying on a single layer of password protection is simply not enough. However, sending a code by SMS text message is not very secure because they are sent in clear text. If the user were to lose their phone or have it stolen, anybody could read that text message and fraudulently authenticate. More websites need to use two-factor authentication like Facebook is doing, but a more secure and easier-to-use approach is to send an image-based authentication challenge to the user’s phone, like Confident Technologies provides: http://bit.ly/dMNzB5 http://bit.ly/dMNzB5. A grid of pictures is displayed on the user’s smartphone and to authenticate, the user must correctly identify the pictures that fit their pre-chosen, secret categories. Even if someone else had possession of your phone, they wouldn’t be able to authenticate because they wouldn’t know your secret picture categories.