Popular password manager NordPass now offers an authenticator in its mobile app to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) without the need for third-party services.
Available to users with business NordPass accounts, the tool will use its proprietary technology to embed its authenticator into your mobile app, so you can authenticate any login credentials stored in your vault that require 2FA.
Like most authenticator applications, NordPass' built-in authenticator generates a time-based one-time password (TOPT) that you must enter within 30 seconds of entering your login credentials to the service in question. You can use your registered biometric data to easily access your authenticator.
more convenience
2FA or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) relies on one of your secondary devices, usually your smartphone, to authenticate a connection to a certain service. This way, you make sure that other people cannot access your account with just your username and password.
Most reputable services give you the option to enable 2FA to further protect your account. Texting is a common way to transmit your access codes, but is considered less secure due to the relative ease with which hackers can intercept your messages through Sim-swap tactics.
Authenticator apps are generally more secure because they can't be hacked as easily. The problem with these though is the added inconvenience of having to download a separate app.
And while they're more secure for 2FA than using SMS, NordPass notes that they still have their flaws.
Karolis Arbaciauskas, business development manager at NordPass, said that no matter which 2FA delivery method you use, "it has become increasingly popular to pester internet users with lots of 2FA requests until they pass authentication by confusion," in what which is called MFA fatigue attacks. .
Now NordPass hopes to fix that with its own built-in authenticator. Although it's currently only on mobile apps, the company says it's coming to desktop versions soon.
The news follows another recent update to the password manager feature: NordPass Passkeys, which allows business and individual users to store, autofill, and share password keys in their vaults.
Access keys allow passwordless entry to some accounts (ebay and paypal, for example, already support them) and are considered more secure than passwords and seem poised to replace them in the near future.