Keeping your MyKinsta account as secure as possible is very important. In addition to using a strong password for MyKinsta, we recommend setting up two-factor authentication, or 2FA, as well and ask all users in your company to do the same. With 2FA enabled, all MyKinsta login attempts will require an additional verification code from your mobile device or password management app.
Two-factor authentication—also known as 2FA or TOTP as an abbreviation for time-based one-time passcode, and often substituted with two-step verification—is an additional layer of security that requires at least two of the following: What you know, what you have, and who you are. 2FA Stored Inside 1Password vs Google Authenticator - Am I Playing With Fire? Hi All, I've been using 1Password for years, but have only really been using it as a password generator and storage, not really using any of the other features. Biometric authentication is one of the most secure forms of 2FA because it relies on something you are. It’s very unlikely that a hacker will be able to capture your fingerprints or voice, and the technology is so new that hackers haven’t had a chance to develop effective methods of bypassing it.
This makes your account more secure because malicious actors will no longer be able to gain access with just your username and password. Here at Kinsta, we support Authenticator-based 2FA for all of our customers. In this article, you’ll learn how to set up two-factor authentication to protect your MyKinsta account.
Enable 2FA in MyKinsta
All Kinsta users have access to Authenticator-based two-factor authentication in the MyKinsta dashboard. Compared to SMS-based 2FA, Authenticator-based 2FA is more secure because it doesn’t rely on mobile phone numbers that can be SIM swapped. It is also more convenient because it can be used with popular password managers like 1Password and LastPass.
If you are already using SMS-based 2FA with Authy, you’ll need to disable it before setting up Authenticator-based 2FA. After setting up Authenticator-based 2FA, the legacy SMS-based option will no longer be available.
To enable 2FA, click on your avatar in the bottom left-hand side of the MyKinsta dashboard and then into “User Settings.” Scroll down and click Enable Two-Factor Authentication.
Enable two-factor authentication in MyKinsta.
You will then be prompted to scan the 2FA QR code with an Authenticator app. If you are using a password manager like 1Password or LastPass, we recommend using the built-in 2FA feature in those apps. Otherwise, Google Authenticator is a good option as well.
How to Add MyKinsta 2FA to 1Password
If you’re already using 1Password to manage passwords, we recommend using the built-in two-factor authentication feature to add your MyKinsta 2FA.
First, take a screenshot of the 2FA QR code in MyKinsta, and move it to your desktop for easy access. In the 1Password app, navigate to the login profile for your MyKinsta account, and press Edit.
Find your MyKinsta login profile in 1Password.
Next, click on the “New Field” dropdown and select the One-Time Password option.
Next, click on the QR code icon in the newly created “One-Time Password” field to activate 1Password’s QR code scanner.
Activate the QR code scanner.
Drag the screenshot of the MyKinsta QR code you took earlier into 1Password’s QR code scanner. If 1Password does not recognize your QR code, try to take another screenshot with more whitespace around the QR code and repeat the setup process. When your 2FA code is all set up, click Save in 1Password.
Drag your QR code screenshot into the 1Password’s code scanner.
You should now see a “one-time-password” field in the 1Password login profile for your MyKinsta account. To finish the 2FA setup process in MyKinsta, copy the one-time password into the “Enter the 6-digit code you see in the app” field in MyKinsta, and press Verify.
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How to Add MyKinsta 2FA to Google Authenticator
Google Authenticator is a 2FA app that’s available for both iOS and Android devices. To add MyKinsta 2FA to Google Authenticator, press the + button in the upper right corner of the Google Authenticator app, and press Scan Barcode.
Next, use the camera on your mobile device to scan the QR code in MyKinsta. After you have scanned the QR code, type in the six digit code from Google Authenticator into the “Enter the 6-digit code you see in the app” field in MyKinsta, and press Verify.
About MyKinsta Two-Factor Authentication
When 2FA is enabled, you will see it under the 2FA column in the “User Management” screen. If 2FA is disabled on your account, you will receive an instant email notification. If you get one of these notifications and you didn’t disable 2FA yourself, please reach out to our support team right away.
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The next time you log in to MyKinsta, you will be prompted for a six-digit verification code. Simply open your Authenticator app to find the 2FA code, enter it into the “6-digit verification code” field, and press Login.
MyKinsta login with 2FA.
How to Recover Your 2FA-Protected MyKinsta Account
If you have lost access to your 2FA device and are unable to log in to MyKinsta as a result , our support team can help you regain access to your account.
To recover your 2FA-protected account, follow the steps below.
- Send an email to [email protected] from the email address on file in your MyKinsta account. In other words, if you use [email protected] to log in to MyKinsta, send us an email from [email protected] In the email, let us know you’ve been locked out, and need to regain access to your account.
- Our support team will verify your email address to make sure it matches the one we have on file.
- Our support team will ask you to provide the last 4 digits of the credit card we have on file for the account.
- After successful verification of your email address and credit card details, our support team will remove the 2FA protection from your account. You can then log in to MyKinsta and reconfigure 2FA.
Summary
Over the past decade, cyber attacks have increased significantly in frequency and complexity. In addition to targeted brute-forcing attempts, databases full of usernames and passwords are also routinely dumped on the Internet for everyone to see.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why adding an additional layer of protection with 2FA is important. We recommend enabling 2FA for all your Internet services that support it. With 2FA set up in MyKinsta, you can rest easy now knowing that your Kinsta account is much more secure!
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PayPal has now added 2FA, so this info is no longer needed. Kept for posterity.
Two-factor authentication today is a must to keep your online accounts safe. You certainly want to keep your PayPal account safe. Using SMS to add an extra
Software Installation
First, we need to install some software. I’m using a Macintosh, and these instructions should work under Linux.
First, you need to install the Xcode command line software. Just open the Terminal application that you can find in the /Applications/
Start it and enter:
This command installs the necessary tools for the rest of the installation.
Now, let’s install the actual tool that creates the key.
Enter the following into the terminal application:
I had to replace pip3 with pip on my installation, but I have many changes in my Python setup, so that may be the reason why pip3 didn’t work on my Mac.
You need to install a software called HomeBrew.
Just enter the following in the Terminal window and press return:
Now we can use Brew to install the rest of the software needed.
Just type the following into Terminal and press enter:
That’s all the software you need. Now let’s continue.
Creating Two-Factor Authentication Key
Let’s continue in the Terminal application. We first need to create a key. This key will be used to generate all the six-digit authentications later.
Enter this into Terminal and press return:
This will create a unique key and store it in a hidden folder in your home directory.
The output from the command should look something like this.
Generating request…
Fetching provisioning response…
Getting token from response…
Decrypting token…
Checking token…
Credential created successfully:
otpauth://totp/VIP%20Access:VSSTXXXXXXXX?digits=6&secret=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&period=30&algorithm=SHA1&issuer=Symantec
This credential expires on this date: 2022-02-12T02:26:33.767Z
You will need the ID to register this credential: VSSTXXXXXX
You can use
as would be produced by the official VIP Access apps:
oathtool -d6 -b –totp XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # 6-digit code
oathtool -d6 -b –totp -v XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # … with extra information
Your information is going to look different. The X:ed out in the above output is my key, so I’ve obscured it with X:es. You are going to need this information later to create the key required for PayPal. It’s a good thing to save this output, so copy the text from the Terminal application and paste it into the “Notes” field of your PayPal password inside 1Password.
PayPal Settings
Now it’s time to log in to PayPal and do some changes.
You need to login to your PayPal account. Go to your account setting, and click on “My Settings”. Click on “Update” under the section “Security key”.
1password Authenticator
Click on “Activate a new security key token.” See picture below.
In the field “Serial number”, enter the key from the output in the Terminal application called “You will need the ID to register this credential:”
It starts with VSST and has six digits after it. Copy it complete with VSST and the six following numbers. Paste it into PayPal’s field “Serial number”
In step 2 on PayPal’s setting, you should input a 6-digit code, but you need to create one first. Copy the command you got from the Terminal output when creating your key. It should look something like this:
oathtool -d6 -b –totp XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX # 6-digit code
1password 2fa Authentication
Paste it into the Terminal application and press return.
This will display a six-digit code. Just copy the generated code from your Terminal window into the first 6-digit field.
Now go back to the Terminal application, and repeat the command. The easiest way is to just press the up-arrow on your keyboard, which should fill in the command you just entered automatically. Press return. If the six-digit key is the same, just keep repeating the command until you get a new unique key. Copy that key and paste it into the field “Next 6-digit key” on the PayPal web page.
Now press activate on the PayPal page and if everything worked out, you should now have a security key completed in PayPal.
Let’s move on to 1Password and make it automatically generate the two-factor authentication for your PayPal password.
1Password Two-Factor Authentication For PayPal
Open the 1Password application. Search for your PayPal password in the search field. Select the PayPal password and press the “Edit” button in the lower right side of the 1Password window.
Now press the circle with three dots inside to add a new field. Select “One-time password” as the field type.
You now have a One-Time Password field, but you need to add the secret key into this field. Copy the information Credential created successfully: you got earlier when we created the key in the Terminal application. It should look something like this:
Now all you have to do is to paste the entire line into the “One-Time Password” field inside 1Password.
Press save in 1Password in the lower right side of the window.
1password 2fa Authenticator App
Let’s try it out!
If you added the field described above, as a result, you should now have an indicator showing a timer and a six-digit generated key on one of the lines of information in 1Password for your PayPal password.
1password Google Authenticator
If you’ve have done all of the above and everything worked, you are now ready to try it out. Log out of PayPal, and try to log in again using 1Password. It should automatically fill out the password and then copy the generated six-digit key into the clipboard. Paste the six-digit key into the field when PayPal ask for it. You should now be logged in.
Conclusion
If you think that this was a lot of stuff to do just to get better security in PayPal, you’re absolutely right. Send an email to PayPal and ventilate your anger. If they just used normal 2FA-encryption you wouldn’t need all this work. But if you managed to get through all this, give yourself a pat on the back. You just made your PayPal much safer and also gives you a more