Failing to Backup the site codes - Google Authenticator.

in #bitcoin7 years ago

This is a warning and a lesson to those who use Google Authenticator for 2-Factor Authentication.

This situation could be avoided if you managed to store the secret key generated at the first time you use the Authenticator App on a site, Which obviously I didn't.

This is what happened, I used Google Authenticator to secure my Bittrex.com and Binance.com accounts. When my mobile slowed down I took a back up of my apps and personal data and did a factory reset.

Two days later when I tried to log into my account in bittrex.com, I was prompted to enter my Authenticator key, I opened the Authenticator and it's empty. Then I remembered I didn't take a backup of my keys, For a minute I thought I lost everything.

Fortunately with some help from social media, I found a way to disable 2FA, Which is to send support tickets to the exchanges, Both the exchanges disabled my 2FA after submitting Tickets and following up with them, Binance.com was very fast issue was resolved within Two Hours, Buttrex was fast aswell they resolved the issue within four hours, I expected days.

If you ever get into this situation remember few things. You will need to share with the exchange these details inorder to resolve your issue fast;

  1. IP address which were used while logging in to the account previously - find it in your e-mail login notifications.

  2. ‎Last Transactions - Deposits and withdrawal.

  3. ‎Account Balance - Easy if you used services such as Blockfolio.

  4. ‎Account E-mail - The Support ticket should be submitted from your registered E-mail.

2FA provides an additional layer of protection to your accounts, Trade safe and wise.

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You can transfer all your codes to authy.com and do a backup of all your sites in the cloud. Not as secure as Google authenticator but more convenient .
https://authy.com/blog/authy-vs-google-authenticator/