What does yubikey work with? – why you should protect your information with yubikey

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The yubikey has a two factor authentication that you can enable easily and fast by a single touch or tap on the device. So what does Yubikey work with? This article will provide you with information on yubikey services.

Hi, my name is Joanna. As a college student I have so much going on, especially because it’s my last year at campus. One of the most difficult things I have had to deal with is having two roommates. If you have been in this situation before, you definitely know that you have little to no privacy. Out or everything, I would like to keep my laptop and phone private but that has proven to be hard since we sometimes share my laptop. My school project and personal account are what I treasure the most on my laptop and I would like a system to keep them safe while leaving access to the computer for the others.

So what works with yubikey?

yubikey

One yubikey has several different functions that work to secure your email login information, computer, online website services, applications, and your physical spaces. You can use all, one or any number of features you wish depending on what you want to protect. The most current yubikey will not require any battery or installed software to work. all you need to do is plug in the yubikey into a USB port on your pc or connect it with a USB connection on your phone, press the button and it will secure authentication.

Let’s look at some of the most important functions provided by yubikey

The Yubico one time password

This offers some strong security that is nearly unbreakable.  Your yubikey generates an encrypted password that is to be used one time only. This means that hackers, intruders, family, co workers and other who have access to your PC and phone won’t be able to crack it. In fact, they will need immediate access to the yubikey to be able to generate a onetime password.

The FIDO U2F

This is an open authentication standard that enables any strong two factor authentication to all web- based applications. It works with twitter, Gmail, Salesforce and other web services it does not require any form of drivers or client software and can work through a current or updated chrome browser.

The developers are trying to create a way where the users can use Firefox for these services. Some of the advantages of using this service is that it offers a strong security, very easy to use, you chose and control your identity which is good for privacy and it is cost efficient.

The challenge and response features

This feature is popular in office validations. It works well to keep your Mac, windows and Linux computer logins safe and secure. It is also available on most yubikey versions, except for the security key.  This is the perfect feature to keep all your documents safe and secure from nosy people at home and in the work place.

The OATH – HOTP event

The yubikey has the ability to generate a six or eight character password; i.e a one-time password which you can use to log into any services that support the OATH – HOTP. Applications with a strong authentication standard include Google apps, Microsoft accounts, cloud accounts, Dropbox, Gmail and other accounts. With the yubikey, a new password will be generated at a specific time interval, which is usually set at 30 minutes. This feature is available on all yubikey versions, except security key.

The open PGP

The yubikey 5 series has the ability to secure the PGP key.  It works like in the physical world; you have to validate all documents and data by using your signature. The open PGP is the virtual signature; it works as a standard public key cryptography that you use for signing, decrypting and encrypting emails, files and texts on your phone and computer.

Yubikey works with static passwords

It features the ability to generate a static password that may be more than 30 characters long. This password is almost compatible with any login and can be used with systems that do not allow a two-factor authentication. Like most of the features, it is available on almost all yubikey versions except the security key.

Conclusion

Yubikey is one of the best security inventions ever made. It keeps all my accounts safe from intruders and generates passwords that are not easy to guess. With yubikey, I feel safe even when one of my roommates is using my laptop when I am not around. They can only access the areas of my computer I allow them to.