Google ‘Titan Security key’ is now on Sale for $50

Ankit Gautam
Sep 2, 2018 · 3 min read

As the world gets more digital, some of our most valuable possessions are increasingly those which we cannot touch: documents, photos, emails and other private messages. You may even want to protect your social media accounts. But locking down things you can’t touch can, to some, be confusing. Keeping your online accounts safe like Facebook , Gmail , Twitter , and other social accounts from hackers requires careful consideration, dedication, and a fairly good memory. Even if you try your best, there’s always a chance that hackers will figure out a way in… unless you add another layer of protection.Other high-value possessions require a human touch to ensure protection. Cars get locked with keys, pushing a button, closing a garage or all of the above. Houses are secured in a similar manner, while cash and jewelry go in a vault secured with a code you must navigate with your fingers. But protecting your digital assets is usually a virtual affair.

This is all changing with security keys, it’s an hardware that provides an extra layer of security by requiring you to touch them in order to log into certain applications. Google has entered the market with its Titan Security Keys, which were announced last month and arrived in the Google Store today for $50.

Titan Security Key

Titan Security Keys have extra “special sauce” from Google — firmware that’s embedded in a hardware chip within the key that helps to verify that the key hasn’t been tampered with.

Getting started

It’s easy to get started with Titan Security Keys. Kits of two keys (one USB and one Bluetooth) are now available to U.S. customers on the Google Store and will be coming soon to additional regions.

To use Google’s key, you first set it up to work with your Google account or other supported service to act as a second security backstop when you log in. After you enter your user name and password, you’ll be asked to hit a button on your key to show that it’s really you. It’s basically a physical version of what’s called two-factor authentication — which uses two different steps to verify your identity.Titan Security Keys are also compatible with the Advanced Protection Program, Google’s strongest security for users at high risk. And Google Cloud admins can enable security key enforcement in G Suite, Cloud Identity, and Google Cloud Platform to ensure that users use security keys for their accounts. In addition to a Google account, the Titan key should work with Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, Bank of America and any other account that uses the same security standard, which is called FIDO — short for Fast Identity Online.

The product is labeled as being “Produced in China,” meaning, like many consumer electronics, that the security key is manufactured there.

Google has tested the key with its 85,000 employees and said in a blog post that there has not been a successful phishing attack at Google since the company started using the process.

Getting a physical key is a high-security step to take, and many people may find it complicated. It may not be a must-have for everyone. But it’s not an unreasonable step to take, considering how much information we all keep online.

Those who buy the Titan key should protect it like any other key they own. If you should lose it, as with any other key, replacement will be a pain and could leave you locked out for a couple of days.

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