The Facebook security team is adding some new security features to the social network’s mobile applications, including upgrades to the login mechanism and account recovery options.
The first addition is an update to Facebook’s existing login approval mechanism, which they are calling ‘code generator.’ In addition to that, the world’s largest social network is adding functionality that has long been available to users on traditional computers and gives them the ability to report and block unwanted content. The last update will make it easier for users to react to account takeovers from their mobile devices, a process that, until now, required the use of a computer.
The login approval feature update will make it so that users accessing the network on a new device can receive login approvals directly from the application regardless of whether users have Internet access or cellular service. It used to be the case that users would have to wait on an SMS message when accessing Facebook on an unrecognized device, which caused problems in areas with spotty service. The code generator feature is currently only available for users of the Android operating system, but the social network plans on expanding to other operating systems. Non-Android users will still be able to receive login approvals via SMS.
The reporting unwanted content feature is not yet available on Facebook’s mobile applications, but, again, the security team claims they are working on it. However, users of touch-enabled devices can block and report content on Facebook’s mobile site.
The improvements to mobile recovery include the ability to lock down your account from your mobile device, review login locations, and reset passwords, in addition to a mobile-capable extension to the company’s existing social authentication tool.
The Facebook Security page has links to instructions on how to set up code generator and report or hide unwanted content unwanted, which you can find here.
