Dev Blog: Two-Factor Authentication… finally!

Greetings Capsuleers!

I’m CCP Ghostrider and I’m here to tell you all about the two-factor authentication that we will be releasing to Account Management an April 28th.

What is Two-Factor Authentication and how does it help me?

Two-Factor Authentication is a security measure that adds an extra layer of security to your account authentication by asking for some sort of verification other than your password to complete the authentication. In our case we will start with offering two options:

• A verification code sent to the registered and valid email address.
• A verification code generated by a Google Authenticator compatible application on your smartphone.

This prevents others from accessing your account details in case your account credentials ever get compromised.

When you enable Two-Factor Authentication for your EVE Online account you will be required to provide the two-factor verification code when logging in through the EVE Online SSO or the Launcher.

This will protect you from nefarious people trying to steal your account by logging into account management and changing the registered email address, transferring your character etc.

Sounds good! How do I use it?

Turning on Two-Factor Authentication is just a matter of a few easy steps.

1. Log-in to account management and go to Account -> “Edit Account Information” and make sure that you have a valid and verified email address.
2. Go to Account -> “Two Factor Authentication Settings” and follow the instructions.

Awesome! Is that it?

Yes. It’s this easy! Here’s a few screenshots of the process:

Logged in with Two-Factor Authentication disabled

Two-Factor Settings, enabling Authenticator

Logging in with Two-Factor Authentication enabled

Anything else I should know?

Yes. This does not prevent people from logging into the game client by circumventing the launcher. That is a legacy issue that we were unable to fix this time around. Also, if you change your registered email address, Two-Factor Authentication for the account will be disabled and will need to be enabled again after verifying the new email address.

That’s it for now. I encourage you to enable Two-Factor Authentication as soon as it’s released to help keep your account secure from the bad people out there.

Fly safe! o7

[ Original Dev Blog ]