GoKawiilStarting from March 13, GitHub will make it mandatory for all its active developers to enable 2-factor authentication on their accounts. Once the plan is in full action, the new policy is expected to secure the accounts of at least 100 million users.
The entire rollout and implementation is expected to last till the end of the year. First, the company is expected to reach out to small developers and administrators via email to speed up their two-factor authentication process. They will then reach out to smaller or independent developers in the next phase.
The selection of which group of developers gets approached first to turn on 2FA on their account will completely depend on their total contribution to the codes and the actions taken through their account.
Once your account has been selected to participate in the rollout, you’ll receive a welcome email from GitHub with the company’s patent banner asking you to enroll in the process. After that, you’ll have up to 45 days to turn on 2FA authentication. In the meantime, your account will run as usual, but there’ll be occasional reminders from the GitHub team reminding you about turning on 2FA.
The reminders will keep coming until you turn them on. They’ll also keep reminding you of the last date for enabling 2-factor authentication. If you fail to do so within the deadline, they’ll automatically guide you to the 2FA page the next time you try to log into your account. And if you still don’t turn it on, you’ll be barred from using a few features until you complete the authentication process.
Speaking about the 2FA rollout, Product Marketing Director Laura Paine and Staff Product Manager Hirsch Singhal said that “GitHub has designed a rollout process intended to both minimize unexpected interruptions and productivity loss for users and prevent account lockouts,”
A positive step toward security
The mandate to turn on 2FA isn’t something new. In fact, GitHub made two announcements last year in May and December, informing all their developers that by the end of 2023, each and every one of them will have to turn on two-factor authentication on their account— no exceptions.
The process is pretty simple, and if you still need help, GitHub will guide you on how to set up 2FA for your account. At the same time, it’ll also show you how you can again get back your access to the account in case you lose your 2FA credentials.
This policy change is implemented to drive up the security of individual developer accounts and prevent hostile takeovers. Using a simple authentication method or a weak, reused password is like deliberately opening up your account to online attackers.
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