We have maintained since long time that LastPass is the best password management tool available for free. Honestly I couldn’t find even a paid password management tool which comes close to Lastpass in terms of features and simplicity. Today, we got one more great reason to use LastPass. LastPass today has added one more authentication for your accounts making them much more secure. LastPass now supports Google Authenticator, the same tool which is developed and used by Google for its 2 step authenication of Gmail or Google Accounts.
In simple terms, this means that you can secure your last pass account with a added layer of security. After enabling this additional feature, you will need to provide a secure key along with your LastPass account every time you want to login into to start using all your passwords associated with LastPass.
Honestly, when I read about this on their Blog announcement post, I assumed that this feature will be available only for premium accounts. But LastPass proved me wrong. This additional 2 step Authentication using Google Authenticator is being made available to all LastPass account whether its a free account or premium one. Thank you LastPass for doing that.
How to enable LastPass multi-factor authentication
If you have used the Gmail two step authentication system, then you must be familiar with this system. Firstly you need to have a supported mobile device with you. Currently only the following mobile devices are supported.
- Android devices
- iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad
- BlackBerry devices
You can find the detailed instructions by Google on how to install Google Authenticator for your device here.
Apart from these devices, some other devices too are supported.
- Windows Phone -Â Authenticator developed by Slugonamission.
- WebOS device – GAuth.developed by Greg Stoll.
- Symbian device, or any device that supports Java ME -Â gauthj2me developed by Obruj0.
If you own any of the the devices above then you can proceed further. You need to install Google Authenticator App on your mobile device. After you are done with the installation of Google Authenticator, go to https://lastpass.com/?ac=1&opengoogleauth=1. You need to scan a QR code or Bar code for your Google Authenticator App on your Phone. You can scan it easily using any of the free Bar Code scanning app (Androids, iPhones and supported devices with cameras). Or you can manually enter the Google Authentication Key found on that setup page.
Just update these settings by clicking Enabled in “Google Authenticator Authentication” option and you are done. Now if you login to your lastPass account on a new device, you will need to provide the Authentication code along with your Master password to login to Lastpass.
Just put the code generated by your mobile device to get access to your account.
I highly recommend every user to use this feature as Lastpass stores all your username and password details. Hence you should make it as secure as you can. I already enabled it for my account. What about you?
Thanks @Samuel for the tip.
November 7, 2011 @ 12:20 PM
Update:
Having issues with the Google Authenticator popup not coming while using the browser addons and hence cannot sign in. It just gives the error message that you need to provide Google authenticator secure code but no window appears to input that.
I had to disable this after signing in the lastpass account from a browser which has no lastpass addon installed as it is not allowing to signin in browser where the addon is installed.
Hope they can fix it soon or may be they need to update their Addons.
November 7, 2011 @ 12:41 PM
@Avinash
You have to sign in via this page: https://lastpass.com/?ac=1&opengoogleauth=1
1. Enter username and password.
2. Open the Google Authenticator app, it will show you a code with a timer
3 Enter the code before the timer runs out. Or enter another code which appears
And then give a name for your computer and add it to Trusted Computer 🙂
November 7, 2011 @ 2:48 PM
@Im_Ashwin@avinash Well, they should integrate it with their browser plugin and addons as most users will be using that only.
November 7, 2011 @ 7:15 PM
Yes. it was confusing for me too.
They need to provide this information clearly or atleast open a pop-up window which opens the Google Authenticator tab.
November 9, 2011 @ 6:07 PM
Update 1:
Just update the LastPass addon or extension to 1.8 to make Google Athenticator Work. You can download the latest by going to https://lastpass.com/dl in the browser.