Why you should get your hands on a yubikey...!!

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I have covered the importance of MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) aka 2-factor security with more and more vendors such as Gmail, Outlook, and others now supporting MFA there is no reason not to have it enabled. MFA  is the answer to a lot of security issues when it comes to authentication.

One of the common complaints with MFA is that it is not always user-friendly and can be hard to setup for the average user. Google has the authenticator app available on the play store and there are others such as Authy but for some reason still, users don’t embrace this security measure. worst of all its totally free! One vendor that is making this process easier for users while also streamlining the MFA support for everyone else is YUBIKEY

YUBIKEY uses a physical device that you can put on your keychain that has a button that you press on it. While the others use mobile apps and use the phone as the physical device that is used for the second piece of authentication remember MFA is something you have (phone/key) and something you know (Password).

One of the features I like is that you can use the key to help generate keys, such as PGP keys, the official site says that RSA 4096 for OpenPGP is supported! Amazing, right?

The Key is supported on tons of platforms which is a plus since some of the mobile apps don’t support every platform. Things like Facebook, Gmail, and other popular services, are supported out of the box, and the key works on all operating systems. The other thing I like about having a physical key is not having to worry if my phone has died or if I have to restore my phone that no longer contains the app. However, AUTHY has a cool feature where it backups the keys and you can log in to get them back. Google Authenticator does not have such a feature at the time of this writing.

The YUBIKEY can be used with full disk encryption and there is even integration with password managers such as KeePass which is also impressive. The key retails for $18 for the single protocol key there is also a multiprotocol key for $40 which comes in different form factors. They both have the same functionality recently Google has announced that it has added support for an additional layer of Gmail protection which uses the YUBIKEY.


With all of the accounts that get hacked on a daily basis, it is important to take care to secure your online accounts. Whether it’s YUBIKEY or Google authenticator etc., you can protect your account for free or in YUBIKEYS case for a very small amount. I recommend if you don’t have an MFA enabled that you enable it, now.

I am not sponsored by YUBIKEY  and have not been paid by them I just like their product. Hope you enjoyed the article.

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