Yahoo Reinventing Retrieving Your Forgotten Password

Yahoo announced on Sunday that they will be launching a new service called “on-demand” passwords. This new service allows users to log-in to their account using a password that is texted to them through from Yahoo. On their blog, Yahoo explained it works like this:

1)    Sign in to your Yahoo.com account.

2)    Click on your name at the top right corner to go to your account information page.

3)    Select “Account Security” in the left bar.

4)    Click on the slider for “On-demand passwords” to opt-in.

5)    Enter your phone number and Yahoo will send you a verification code.

6)    Enter the code and voila!

The next time you try to log-in, the password field says ‘send my password’ and the company will send it to your phone.

During a session at South By Southwest Yahoo’s vice president of product management for consumer platforms, Dylan Casey, said that “This is the first step to eliminating passwords”.

Richard Nieva said on Yahoo that “while many websites have a two-factor authentication, where you first enter your own password, then enter a second password the company sends to your phones. (Many popular services including Google’s Gmail do this). Think of Yahoo’s process like two-factor authentication, minus the first factor.”

Nieva reported that “cyber security has become a top issue for the technology industry. Several of the world’s most well-known companies, including Sony and Apple, have fought high-profile security vulnerabilities. Many companies have also tried to tackle the problem of their users having weak passwords. Password managers, like LastPass, also tries to take the burden off users to remember passwords.”

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