Plagued with high-profile hacks in recent months, Twitter is finally getting serious about security with a new two-step login verification -- but users will need to actually enable it first before they'll be protected.
Twitter announced Wednesday that the microblogging service now has a "login verification" option available to users. That's basically their fancy way of saying two-step authentication, a feature that has been making headlines after being adopted by the likes of Google and Apple.
Login verification is a method to prevent email phishing schemes or password data breaches from affecting Twitter users. Once activated, any login will require a six-digit code in addition to the password, with the password only being sent via SMS to your cell phone.
While that method works great on Twitter.com, users will need to actually generate a temporary password to log in from third-party applications, which can only be done from the dedicated applications page.
To activate login verification, users must first head to their account settings on Twitter.com and check the "require a verification code when I sign in" option near the bottom of the screen. Add a phone to your account and you'll be good to go.
Login verification may have been the big Twitter news on Wednesday, but the company also pushed out another update to its Mac application, finally adding Notification Center integration. The update also adds a number of big fixes for Growl, composing tweets and more, so be sure to download version 2.2.1 from the Mac App Store today.
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