Ok, One is sometimes better. Better one mortgage than two. Better one suitcase than two. Better one tax than two. Better one spouse than two (did I write that out loud??). But when it comes to digital authentication, two is much, much better than one. We have reached the point where it is in fact almost a must, if you value sleeping well at night. The bad guys have gotten too good at hacking accounts which have only a single password to protect it, no matter how complex or long or unique it might be.
And once they are in, you’ll have more destruction than a John Wick movie. If they get to your network, they will most likely encrypt it and ask for a ransom. If they get to your email, they can download all you got and start sending out emails from you to contribute to your new unbeknownst to you “Send A Child To Camp” fund. Either way, it’s lots of work to cleanup and can cost you. It’s the same reason we lock our doors at night because once they get in, they can go “Cra Cra” as the kids say, and the next thing you know you’re on a first name basis with Lifelock cleaning it up.
What’s more, the hassle normally associated with this has been greatly lessened by most institutions’ willingness to allow you to re-authenticate periodically from the same device. So you might enter a code every 30 days rather than daily. Note the key here is it is from the same device. Any new device, such as a guy named Vladimir on the Ukraine, has to enter it the first time. To date this hasn’t been broken and truly protects your systems.
So turn on two-factor, where you have to enter a password and a code from your phone. And do it on ANYTHING with important information in it: email, financial accounts, cloud servers, and the like. Remember redundancy is better when it comes to technology, but not when it comes to relationships!!