Enable two-step verification on your Apple ID before it’s too late

A simple web search will show you cautionary tales of those who have been hacked and the consequences on their lives, with perhaps the most famous poor Mat Honan from Wired magazine.

Take then something as important as your Apple ID. Not only does it contain the likes of your email address, password, date of birth, but it also has access to your credit card details and the potential for some serious damage to your digital persona as well as your bank account.

While you can follow the usual advice on regularly changing your password and ensuring it contains special characters as well as capitals and numbers, you should go at least a step further when it comes to your Apple ID and ensure you use two-step verification.

This will ensure that changes to your account or purchases from a new device have to be verified with a code sent to your chosen device, so not only do you need to know the password, but also you need to have your mobile to hand.

Enabling it is straightforward enough:

1. Login to your Apple ID
2. Click on ‘Manage your Apple ID’
3. Then on ‘password and security’
4. Then on the two-step verification option
5. Follow the steps through as indicated, including verifying your devices – unique IDs will be sent to your mobile and any devices your trying to replicate
6. Make sure you keep your Recovery Key in a safe place
7. Good work, job done