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Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

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Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#21
post #17

I've tried to setup Authy using bluetooth, but I failed :(. Mac OSX 10.8 on Macbook Air, iOS 7 on iPhone 4S. It did ask me on the phone to give access for Bluetooth to Authy, which I approved. But On the desktop app there is an empty list of devices and nothing else shows on my phone's screen.

Hi Maver, unfortunately is likely your Mac doesn't have a Bluetooth 4.0 chip and Apple doesn't have an API on the iPhone to talk via 2.0. It will work on an Android though.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#22
A word about the website: The video is really great, enjoyable and fresh (very positive vibe, extremely well executed).

But I'd rather see something different than a (blurry) image of the founder looking somewhere off screen. I mean it's "personal", I get it - but this can be improved. While this might sound superficial, it's the first thing that came to my mind ...

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#23
post #17

I've tried to setup Authy using bluetooth, but I failed :(. Mac OSX 10.8 on Macbook Air, iOS 7 on iPhone 4S. It did ask me on the phone to give access for Bluetooth to Authy, which I approved. But On the desktop app there is an empty list of devices and nothing else shows on my phone's screen.

Hi Maver, unfortunately is likely your Mac doesn't have a Bluetooth 4.0 chip and Apple doesn't have an API on the iPhone to talk via 2.0. It will work on an Android though.

It's a 2012 Macbook Air, so it should have Bluetooth 4.0 chip. Any other thoughts?

Edit: For the reference - I went to Authy support chat room, and it seems that even though I have a 2012 Mac, system profiler says that I have LMP version 4, which means Bluetooth 2.1. That's why it doesn't work. The support was top notch though.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#24
post #15

I've been using authy for months since it handles 2-factor auth for dnsimple. Just saw the update that supports bluetooth come in on the App Store this morning. Congrats to the team on this big release! One thing that's nice about seeing a modern two-factor auth app with a solid business model behind it, is that Google seems to have abondoned their Authenticator app - no releases since 2011, doesn't yet work properly…

> ... Google seems to have abondoned their Authenticator app

What exactly would you like improved in Google Authenticator? It's not like it does anything special, it just scans TOTP QR codes and generates TOTP codes, and it does both of those pretty well.

I actually like the fact that it has no additional functionality. Everything stays on the device itself and is not sent to Google or saved "to the cloud"[1]. The only thing I think that would be an improvement would be for it fit the entire iPhone 5 screen (it's letter boxed) but that doesn't really bother me that much.

[1]: I've heard it gets backed up to iCloud but I don't use that.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, we already do. We charge websites, banks and apps to enable two-factor auth on their sites. See https://www.authy.com/developer/pricing .

Ah, I see, thank you. Another question: If for some reason, your company shut down tomorrow morning, what would that mean for users of your app? Would it stop working?

You could just disable two-factor auth and continue password-only until you find an alternative provider.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, we already do. We charge websites, banks and apps to enable two-factor auth on their sites. See https://www.authy.com/developer/pricing .

Ah, I see, thank you. Another question: If for some reason, your company shut down tomorrow morning, what would that mean for users of your app? Would it stop working?

michael: Wouldn't I need to do that for every provider that Authy is wrapping?

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#27
I love the concept of this, but I'm out of the use case for the time being (Windows / Linux user). The other key annoyance is that none of my desktop computers have bluetooth, because I built them for gaming, not wireless peripherals.

That being said, you probably already thought about using a centralized server or other methods of communication. Either it'll kill battery, or require some intermediary server - which would probably need two-factor authentication to authenticate.

Though, overall, I love this idea a lot more than backing up my Google Authenticator app with Titanium Backup and restoring it each time I change phones/ROMs.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#28

A word about the website: The video is really great, enjoyable and fresh (very positive vibe, extremely well executed). But I'd rather see something different than a (blurry) image of the founder looking somewhere off screen. I mean it's "personal", I get it - but this can be improved. While this might sound superficial, it's the first thing that came to my mind ...

:). That's not me. I wish I was as good looking as the actor in the video. I am here: www.authy.com/about.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#29
I've been using Authy for all my accounts that support 2-factor auth for a while now and it's awesome! Google's app is crap and Authy's app is sexy and fast. It really kinda annoys me now when websites don't support 2-factor auth. It's easy enough for them with the Authy API and adds so much for me. More and more I see major websites having their hashed password databases stolen (just search HN). The situation's only getting worse.

Re: Authy: Faster Two-Factor Authentication

#30

Hi, I'm Daniel, Authy Founder. We've worked almost 18 months on this product, it's surreal to finally see it out. Anyway, you can read more about why we did this here: http://blog.authy.com/thefuture

Great commercial. I feel like my mom would even understand 2-factor auth now.
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