Facebook will start allowing users to prepare physical security keys as a way to confirm their identity before entering the mobile app on the social network, starting next year.
It also provides an option to use a hardware security key before each login to connect to one’s desktop computer. Via retailers, users can purchase a hardware key and register with Facebook.
It also plans to extend “Facebook Protect” which will mean that its high-profile account protection service, such as electoral candidates.
Facebook Protect is currently available in the US. It provides a way for lawmakers, government officials, and election workers to lay down additional security provisions, such as real-time surveillance and two-factor authentication of possible hacking risks.
Facebook’s head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said, “Bad actors are trying to target the social media assets of prominent voices. Just because you’re not a CEO or a political candidate doesn’t mean you’re not a prominent person in your field and a target. Our thesis is that you have to protect accounts because every compromised asset can become a tool that is used by bad actors for greater harm – much greater – afterward, in addition to causing immediate harm to people.”
