We've previously discussed how Samsung should consider improving the way it informs Samsung Account users of the fact that they can enable 2-factor authentication (2FA) for extra security. After numerous celebrities in South Korea have had their accounts hacked, and following the recent data leak incident involving Find My Mobile notifications, Samsung has now decided to make 2FA mandatory with its latest update to the Samsung Account application.
The way mandatory 2FA seems to work now is, new or existing Samsung Account owners who log in will be required to authenticate their accounts by entering their phone number to receive a code. This will happen regardless of whether your existing account has 2FA enabled or disabled, hence the word ‘mandatory.'
You'll have to log out and log back in again to get mandatory 2FA
Oddly enough, users who already are logged into their accounts – and we suspect they're in the majority – won't be prompted to re-authenticate after the update. Granted, their accounts will still be secure in case someone else tries to log in using their credentials, as they will be faced with the mandatory 2FA screen. Nevertheless, many users are likely to remain unaware of this change until they log out and log back in again by their own volition. In other words, Samsung has made 2FA better by making it mandatory, and this is certainly a welcomed addition. But the company still has a bit of work to do on making this feature easier to find and understand by the average user.
Until then, you can always refer to your guide on how to enable 2FA manually on your Samsung account to keep it secure even without this latest update.
Now, the update is not yet available everywhere, and unlike most other Samsung apps that can be checked for updates manually, Samsung Account cannot. Therefore, you'll have to wait for the update to reach your device in your region.
Thanks, @MehdiMa0507, for sharing the screenshot above.
