Over the past several years, we’ve done our best to remind everyone to install a password manager, keep their devices updated and start taking online security more seriously. Unfortunately, the companies that build the ubiquitous programs and services that we use every day aren’t quite as concerned with keeping our information safe and secure.
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According to Motherboard, the dark web market known as AlphaBay now requires all vendors to use two-factor authentication on their accounts. There’s a good chance you aren’t familiar with AlphaBay, but if you were, you’d know that it’s a marketplace for illegal drugs, stolen accounts and hacking tools.
“We now enforce mandatory 2FA (two-factor authentication) for all vendors. This is part of an increasing effort to stop phishing on the marketplace. We recommend that everyone uses 2FA for more security,” writes AlphaBay.
AlphaBay doesn’t require buyers to use 2FA, but strongly recommends it. The reason this is all so fascinating is that none of the most common services on the Internet impose the same security restraints. If you want two-factor authentication on Google, you have that option, but it’s not compulsory.
Same goes for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and basically any other app or website you visit on a daily basis.
As Motherboard notes, requiring 2FA doesn’t mean that AlphaBay’s security measures are stronger than Google’s (or any of these other services mentioned above), it’s just that 2FA should probably be mandatory for everyone.
