Google advises two-factor authentication is best defence against account hijacking

You might not like to punch in security codes every time you log in to your email account, but Google says that it is the best way to prevent your accounts from getting hacked.

In its official blog, Google revealed that together with researchers from the New York University and the University of California, it conducted a year-long study to find out how effective basic account hygiene is at preventing hijacking.

The research discovered that just adding a recovery phone number to your Google account via two-factor authentication can block up to 100 per cent of automated bots, 99 per cent of bulk phishing attacks, and 66 per cent of targeted attacks. The on-device prompts are considered a more secure replacement for SMS.