Over the past few years, scores of data breaches of big companies like Facebook and Yahoo have made us wary of the tendency of online databases to be vulnerable. But most often, we imagine repercussions in the terminology of passwords and the data we enter online, with SMSes easily escaping the inventory of potential culprits.
Another security researcher, Dylan Katz who reviewed these findings, also cautioned about “the potential that this has already been abused“. If it has, its reach could have a catastrophic impact on the users whose data was reportedly leaked.
While the impact of this leak is not currently measurable, we recommend you to use Google Authenticator app (free) which generates short–lives numeric codes for the purpose of 2-Factor Authentication. Although, it must be noted that Authentication runs on a device and the data is not stored on the cloud. While that ensures more security, you might be locked out if you lose your smartphone or have it stolen.
