The Security B-Movie
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes, ere of Como Park, emails:
Amazon just implemented two factor authentication. I hate it.
I get a daily email of free Kindle book listings which I receive on my phone
I sign into my Amazon account on my phone so I can download the free Kindle book
Amazon places a telephone call to my phone to recite the six digit authentication code. It is spoken so I cannot cut and paste
I flip from the phone app to the sign in page and enter the code they just told me over the telephone
And it’s an invalid code
Go all the way back to the beginning to start over
Even if it worked, all that would prove is that the person who’s trying to log into my account has my phone. Doesn’t mean it’s actually me.
I wish there was an opt out
Joe Doakes
It’s cut down my Amazon orders from mimimal to almost nil.
February 9th, 2026 at 1:00 pm
That hasn’t happened to me yet. However, several other consumer apps have. Frankly, I’m glad for two factor authentication for anything related to my money.
February 10th, 2026 at 9:00 pm
Be glad if you don’t have T-Mobile. They allow simjacking with regularity and are infamous for it. Even if you have 2 factor, it doesn’t matter much if your carrier will simply hand over your phone number to someone else.