WARNING: 2FA is great – but did you backup the seed/recovery key?

So; you realised you need to take security seriously, and are feeling pretty smug having setup 2 Factor Authentication (2FA)- awesome!

But take a minute and a step back – what if you lost your phone/device with your 2FA app, or smashed the screen and the device was not usable?

Sure; there’s ways to recover accounts – but that can result in complete lockouts for security and all kinds of hoops to jump through. Expect a-lot of wasted time and a period where you can’t access your crypto accounts.

So next time you setup 2FA, don’t just take a picture of the QR code – actually record the ‘seed’ and store is securely and separately to your device with your 2FA application installed. Then physically input the seed you recorded into your 2FA application – that way you know you’ve recorded it correctly!

Your sensitivity to risk will dictate what ‘secure’ means to you – for some it will be an obscured note written down and stashed in a fireproof safe, for others an encrypted password manager might do… but just be conscious to make it unusable/not linked to an obvious ‘account’ if anyone else were to come across it.

Just never, EVER store as plain text or as a note on your phone/computer… you may as well not have 2FA if your doing that!!