Looking very professional! And yes, I totally hate two factor authorisation too. I have a bank account in Italy which I am not using and want to close, but can't even access any more because the 2 factor idiocy was on my Italian phone which I have given up years ago and they refuse to put it on my German phone. And I would have to physically go to fucking Milano to close my account, they do not accept any other way. Ugh.
I still have a dangling account in Germany that i couldn't close - they might even still be charging a 5€ fee each month for all i know! After i left Australia and struggled for years to try close my account i just gave up.
I wish there were better facilities for managing financial things while you're in a different country. I know one reason why it's difficult is to try stop money laundering or other illegal activities, but the annoying thing is that very wealthy (including, presumably, criminals) can hire accountants to do all this stuff for them, while normal people are the ones who get inconvenienced.
Haha, I remember griping about two-factor authentication last summer after we moved and knowing this is a pain point of yours too. My bank (which I like for all other things) sends a six-minute text if you want to log in on your PC. Better make sure you don't live farther than 5 minutes from a strong enough signal such that you can get home and input the code before it expires. Luckily they only started the mandatory two-factor bullshit right after we returned from Bahrain because I can only surmise how that would have worked (I had a US VOIP number while overseas, but guess what? No one will send a text to a VOIP
( ... )
Oh no! Expiring text messages! I've had that problem too. Some places still use email-based 2FA and that's really annoying because sometimes their email server doesn't send out the email quickly enough, so by the time it gets to the head of the queue and is sent out, it's passed the deadline before which you are supposed to use the code. I think Steam (the gaming service) is notorious for that, where sometimes i end up with 10 emailed codes in my inbox before i finally got one in a short enough time that i can actually log in. Infuriating.
Fortunately it turned out dealing with the CRA was easier than expected. I made the call from Skype, so i didn't need to use my phone, and after answering a bunch of security questions i was able to confirm my identity to the point where they reset my 2FA to a passcode grid. I'm not sure how that's especially different from a password, since i am just going to store the passcode grid in my password manager anyway, but whatever. At least i can log in now. Best part is... the message was a refund for
That's a great resolution! Hopefully you won't have to deal with them again for a long time... except by then the password grid will have expired and you'll have to do the whole rigmarole again. :-)
Ugh - best of luck dealing with CCRA - my brother had to call them last week to change his mailing address. Can't change your address online, cannot change it over the phone for "security reasons".
Ultimately he ended up *faxing* them a piece of paper asking for the address change - THAT apparently was totally secure- but answering all the security questions on the phone and trying to get them to change it while on the call - was impossible.
Why was he trying to change his address? So that they could *mail* him a PIN so he can log in online.
Two factor authentication is just stupid security theatre. I'm forever locked out of my google drive because I no longer have whatever phone number was associated with my account and cannot get a text message (the phone number was a landline anyway) to prove who I am. Google has NO mechanism to get any technical support to resolve this - you're just screwed forever.
I am so glad i didn't have to go through all of that! After days of procrastination, i finally called them, and they sorted me out in about 30 minutes. I did have to provide a lot of different proof of identity (which fortunately i had prepared by scanning a bunch of docs before leaving Canada), but they basically reset my 2FA from a phone number to a special downloadable password grid. It'll still annoy me every time i log in, but at least it's something i can put in my password manager on the cloud and never have to worry about losing again.
I, too, loathe two step authentication. I hate it so much that I stopped selling used books on Amazon because they started insisting on two step authentication. And I hate that it means I just can't do certain things online when I'm not at home. They have those stupid "secret questions" they made me answer, why not use those? I can't wait until computers start having thumbprint ID for logging in to things.
Comments 18
And yes, I totally hate two factor authorisation too. I have a bank account in Italy which I am not using and want to close, but can't even access any more because the 2 factor idiocy was on my Italian phone which I have given up years ago and they refuse to put it on my German phone. And I would have to physically go to fucking Milano to close my account, they do not accept any other way. Ugh.
Reply
I wish there were better facilities for managing financial things while you're in a different country. I know one reason why it's difficult is to try stop money laundering or other illegal activities, but the annoying thing is that very wealthy (including, presumably, criminals) can hire accountants to do all this stuff for them, while normal people are the ones who get inconvenienced.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Fortunately it turned out dealing with the CRA was easier than expected. I made the call from Skype, so i didn't need to use my phone, and after answering a bunch of security questions i was able to confirm my identity to the point where they reset my 2FA to a passcode grid. I'm not sure how that's especially different from a password, since i am just going to store the passcode grid in my password manager anyway, but whatever. At least i can log in now. Best part is... the message was a refund for
Reply
Reply
Ultimately he ended up *faxing* them a piece of paper asking for the address change - THAT apparently was totally secure- but answering all the security questions on the phone and trying to get them to change it while on the call - was impossible.
Why was he trying to change his address? So that they could *mail* him a PIN so he can log in online.
Two factor authentication is just stupid security theatre. I'm forever locked out of my google drive because I no longer have whatever phone number was associated with my account and cannot get a text message (the phone number was a landline anyway) to prove who I am. Google has NO mechanism to get any technical support to resolve this - you're just screwed forever.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment