Google claims to have stopped account hacks of 150 million users, here’s how – Times of India

With cybercrime on the rise and cases of fraud cropping up regularly, it is vital that users on the internet take steps to keep their accounts safe. To ensure that Google in 2021 had introduced 2SV or 2-Step Verification, a feature that gives people an extra layer of protection when cybercriminals try to hack into their accounts, by requiring a second form of verification beyond the password.
In a blog post, Google said that, “Since last year’s initiative, we’ve successfully auto-enabled 2SV for over 150 million people, and we’ve also required it for over 2 million of our YouTube creators.” Not just that but Google claims that it has seen a 50% decrease in accounts being compromised among those users.
2SV or 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) is a common method put in place by tech companies to ensure that hacking users’ accounts isn’t easy. Even if someone can ‘guess’ or hack your password, with 2SV it won’t be easy to get into the account without going through the next step of verification.
Google believes that having a second form of verification can be in protecting your data and personal information. The tech giant also said that it will continue to work on ways to ensure its users are safer on the internet.
The company further said that both public and private sector are in favour of 2SV. In fact, in the US, the Biden Administration has taken a strong position on multi-factor authentication (MFA), signing an Executive Order requiring government agencies to implement MFA for the protection of government data. “We are seeing governments around the world take similar approaches,” noted Google in the blog post.
Google also said that in 2022, it will continue its 2SV auto enrollments, make signing in even more seamless, and spread awareness on all of the ways Google can keep users safe on the internet.