Bitcasino Blog

We all know how important internet security is these days.

The truth is that cybercriminals are getting even smarter, and if we don’t protect our personal information and financial data online, it’s a simple fact that we put ourselves at great risk of being hacked.

The good news is that security professionals out there are working hard on helping us improve our safety online, and one of their more recent innovations has been multi-factor authentication.

In a nutshell, this requires you to input two different elements when signing into a user account on a website. One of these “factors” will already be known to you (it might be a password or a PIN), and the other will be completely new – often, you will be presented with a text message that you need to enter.

Here at Bitcasino, we are determined to keep our players and their account information safe and secure when they play on our site. That’s why we provide a two-factor authentication (2FA) option for our players, using the industry-leading app that is Google Authenticator.

If you’d like to find out more, then don’t hesitate to read on.

What is 2FA?

Firstly, it’s important to note that 2FA is a sub-strand of multi-factor authentication, in which a user is only granted access to a website or account after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence – known as factors – that confirm their identity.

There are four main types of authenticating factors:

• Something that is known only to the user – passwords, PINs, etc.
• Possessions only the user has – keys, USB sticks, cards, etc.
• A physical characteristic of the user – biometrics, fingerprints, etc.
• The location of the user – GPS tracking, etc.

As you may have guessed, 2FA uses two layers of evidence to prove that you are who you say you are.

The most common application of 2FA is in the use of protecting users’ accounts, such as those that you set up at Bitcasino. In this way, you are guaranteed extra security, and it makes it almost impossible for hackers and fraudsters to access your personal and financial information.

Another example of 2FA is when you withdraw cash from an ATM. You need a live bank card and the correct PIN – without one or the other of these items, you will not be able to access your account.

Online, the most common form of 2FA is two layers of password entry. You may enter a user name and a password that are already known to you, and then the merchant may send you a secondary password via text message or email to enter as well. This is two-factor authentication in its most basic form.

The idea behind 2FA has been around for centuries: think of those numbered padlocks where the user needs the key and the correct combination to break the lock.

However, in this era of online fraud and identity theft, it has never been more important.

Cybercrime: don’t become another victim

There are some alarming statistics regarding cybercrime, and the truth is that you shouldn’t think that you are invincible from becoming another victim.

In 2017, online fraud cost the world economy some $600bn – the sum of 0.8% of the global GDP! If ‘cybercrime’ was a country, this would make it the 13th highest ranked on the planet as far as Gross Domestic Product is concerned.

It is estimated that in 2018 cyber criminals raked in more than $1tn from their activities.

Those figures relate to funds that have been traced and tracked – think about all of the cybercrime that goes unpunished or untraced, and it is enough to make your head spin.

What two-factor authentication does is to help protect against ransomware attacks, which account for a large percentage of cybercrime revenue.

There really is no reason to take a chance – only sign up for websites and casinos where 2FA can be implemented at your request.

Why is 2FA so important?

2FA makes your accounts significantly more secure.

You may have your bank card stolen, and while it is essentially useless without a pin, all your personal information that is printed on the card is at risk. We’ll save the debate on contactless cards for another day, but this simple example just goes to show how vulnerable your personal security is when you stick to traditional payment methods.

It’s the same with an online account – your user name and/or password may be compromised by hackers. Without this second string of 2FA authentication information, however, they cannot steal your identity or spend your money.

With cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, however, your personal information stays secure and anonymous at every stage of the transaction. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology, a decentralised system, none of your information is held on a single server which could be hacked. Because each “block” in the blockchain is encrypted, this makes it virtually impossible to hack. What with the added level of 2FA security, your funds and personal information are totally secure.

Any guarantee of additional security is so important in the current digital landscape. It is an unfortunate fact that the techniques deployed by many cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect. As a consequence, digital attacks on individuals, businesses and even government-secured sites are becoming ever more prevalent.

From basic hacking to advanced data breaches, cybercrime is becoming even harder to defend against. That is why many businesses are integrating 2FA into their operations.

It’s a well-known fact that many of us use really rubbish passwords because they are so memorable! From names and dates of birth to numerical codes such as 1234 or 1111, we might be making our lives easier, but we are also putting a target on our backs to would-be digital fraudsters.

That’s why 2FA is so important in this ever-changing technological world.

The advantages of 2FA

It goes without saying that the main advantage of 2FA is security. Even if your online credentials are vulnerable, you still have your secondary layer – usually a mobile phone – secure in your presence.

Another advantage leads on from that, with many of us carrying our smartphones with us somewhere in the region of 24/7! If you are ever asked to action a 2FA request, then you will never be scrabbling around for your phone because it is likely to be about your person.

The main point about 2FA is that you can ensure that your funds are totally secure without having to change your lifestyle. What is more, as technology continues to become even more versatile, we will be able to use even more factors in our authentication, from GPS and speedometers to voice recognition software. This will help to make authentication even more personal to the user.

Why we recommend Google Authenticator

Here at Bitcasino, our mission is to protect you from potential hacking and data theft.

This is not just about the funds in your player account – it’s about your personal identity details and your financial information, which may include bank card/account data.