Facebook prevents unauthorized access with login approval

The new feature, called Login Approvals, allows users to get notification on their mobile when an unauthorized device tries to access their account.

In its security page Facebook wrote,” Finally, our newest advanced security feature, Login Approvals, is now available to everyone who uses Facebook. This is a two factor authentication system that we first announced last month. If you choose to use it, whenever you log in to Facebook from a new or unrecognized device, we’ll require that you also enter a code we send to your mobile phone via text message.”

About the security feature
The feature available through the account settings option, allows a user to approve a mobile number to which the unauthorized access attempt information along with a code will be sent.

After turning on the security feature, any attempt to login from an unknown computer will result in a text massage sent immediately to the approved mobile number. The user then has to enter that code in order to get access to the account from the new computer.

If the user loses the cell phone, then the account can only be accessed from the approved computer. After logging in, the user will be notified of the attempt by the unknown device which will help the user to change the password.

More security features to be considered
Andrew Song, a Facebook engineering intern, wrote in a blog post,” One challenge in building login approvals was balancing security and usability. Similar features on other websites require you to download authentication apps or purchase physical tokens to act as your second factor. These are good approaches, and we're considering incorporating them in the future, but they require a lot from the user before being able to turn on the feature."

Aware of user names and passwords of account holders being stolen through phishing or key logging malwares, Facebook believes the new feature will make it difficult for hackers to gain access to user accounts.