/technologies/security/b/blog/posts/authenticators-share-your-experience-with-2faI recently needed an authenticator app to gain access to a security website. I looked at the three the website security vendor recommended for my phone. One I could use for free and the other two were free, only after I purchased a subscription that en-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/technologies/security/b/blog/posts/authenticators-share-your-experience-with-2faFri, 10 Mar 2023 05:10:16 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:1b60a027-e0f3-4fd0-91c4-313cd957b00ashabaz2<p>Hi Sean,</p> <p>It&#39;s hard to know for sure precisely what happened since you mention it was a mistake in their account setup, but regarding this bit:</p> <p>&quot;<span>I then changed the provider option in the software to Amazon</span>&quot;</p> <p>That sounds like you&#39;re using &quot;delegated authentication&quot; where the site decides to trust you, _provided_ another (usually major) firm trusts you (trust isn&#39;t the correct word here, but it will do). You often have a choice of provider (not always, it is dependent on the site). By you selecting Amazon and logging in with them, then the original site you were using will trust you (because they can confirm directly with Amazon that Amazon was OK with you logging in with your Amazon account, presumably).</p> <p>Two factor authentication doesn&#39;t specify an algorithm, so it can differ, so usually specific software (or from a specific set) would need to be used.&nbsp;</p> <p>Long story short, it&#39;s just a set of steps that help to make it less likely that someone who had stolen your credentials could impersonate you, because they would also have had to have stolen multiple credentials, or your mobile phone or whatever is being used for the other factor in 2FA.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=25377&AppID=67&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">