Use your Mac's 2FA features

Learn how to create one-time passwords in Safari and System Settings

- David Crookes

Given how determined hackers are to steal people’s data, it’s a good idea to ensure online accounts are as secure as possible. So aside from activating Face ID and Touch ID and ensuring passwords are difficult to guess by using Apple’s suggestions, it’s worth considering two-factor authentication (2FA) as an extra layer of security. It’ll mean you, and only you, will be able to access a code that you can then use to log into an account.

Although there are plenty of third-party apps which will generate 2FA codes such as Google Authenticator, Authy and password managers such as 1Password, you don’t actually need them. Your Apple device already has the ability to generate one-time passwords (OTP) in both Safari and in Passwords (the latter being available via System Settings on Mac).

Rest easy

It means you don’t need to keep flipping between apps. Once you’re set up, random codes are generated every 30 seconds for specific accounts and you’ll just need to visit a website and let Safari do the rest.