The practice of reusing mobile phone numbers is a distinctive risk. The main SMS 2FA weakness is the dependency on the service provider. SMS verification is probably the most common 2FA method because of the instant gratification. You must be thinking to yourself, why do you need a physical security key when you can have the verification code (SMS) conveniently sent to your registered mobile device? Why use a physical security key as your 2FA Once done, the next time you login to your account, you just need to plug in your YubiKey 5Ci, give it a light squeeze and you can access your data.

Insert the YubiKey 5Ci and give the contact tips on the sides a light squeeze to confirm.As part of this review, I will show you how to set it up on your Google Account as Gmail is pretty much used by everyone. Setting up the YubiKey 5Ci is relatively straightforward and easy. The gold-painted contact tips are the second step to confirming your identity. The Lightning and USB Type-C connectors are for plugging into your devices to initiate the authentication of your identity. Two gold-painted contact tips on each side.I swapped over to the Mac to continue, and had better luck.The YubiKey 5Ci key is made up of three parts: Apple's process signed me out of the unsupported devices or devices I had not logged into, but then the Security Keys setup would not progress. I had to go through this process, and I want to note that it didn't quite work properly (which is not the YubiKey's fault). Older devices won't support Security Keys at all. Before you can add a Security Key, you need to sign out of all inactive devices, which includes devices that you have not used in the last 90 days. On an iOS device or Mac, Security Keys can be enabled through the Password and Security section of the Settings app. You're going to want to store the Security Keys in two separate locations. The reason for this is because if you lose your physical security key, if you don't have another in a safe place, you're going to lose access to your Apple ID. Apple requires dual security keys for redundancy purposes, and Yubico recommends a pair as well. Note that whatever security key product you pick, you have to have two, not just one.

Security Keys can be set up on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Yubikey 5ci review