Sony has confirmed that they will be adding 2-factor authentication to the PlayStation Network to increase the security of its users.
2-factor authentication is a technique used by many online platforms that allows the user to make sure their account is secure by utilizing the additional security information that only the user has access to, instead of just the username and password. This makes it much harder to use unauthorized and brute force methods to get access to an account.
PlayStation Network is prone to getting hacked in the past. Sony had settled a massive lawsuit around 5 years ago in which millions of PSN account information was stolen. This prompted Sony to increase their security measure but it still took them a while to finally add 2-factor authentication to PSN accounts. This feature is already available for all the Xbox Live users so Sony hadn’t included it with their account system.
“In order to further safeguard our users and their accounts, we are preparing to offer a 2-step verification feature,” said a Sony representative.
This 2-factor authentication was leaked through a recent PS3 firmware update which seems to have enabled this verification for the PS3. This might be followed by PS Vita and PS4 firmware updates that will enable this on their respective devices.
