Only a few weeks after Google announced U2F support and the protocol’s technical specifications were published, a U2F plugin for WordPress popped up and proved that U2F is the simple and open authentication protocol we envisioned it to be. High-security, public key hardware is no longer limited to a few enterprises and government services, but available today for everyone.
Today, we live in a world where both security and speed are critical for working on the Internet. If you are afraid that strong authentication will delay your login process, give the U2F Security Key for your Gmail account a try – you will be surprised how easy it is.
Once you have linked the U2F Security Key with your Google account, the account password and a touch of your U2F device is all you need for strong authentication. Google can remember your password and key for a month at a time, which allows you to click the Gmail shortcut on your desktop or smartphone for instant secure login to your email. Just press your email icon and you are in! How much easier can it be? (There is also an option to require the key be touched before each login).
As a driving U2F contributor, Yubico welcomes the U2F WordPress plugin developed by Daisuke Takahashi and available on GitHub. If you are a developer and considering implementing U2F authentication for your software or service, the Yubico team is happy to help. We offer free and open source U2F reference code and U2F powered YubiKeys.
U2F is here to support high speed, high security, high privacy and lower-cost trust models for the Internet. It’s Universal 2nd Factor and security for the people.