One of the worst possible things to happen when you travel is to have your Airbnb account hacked, and all your personal information including travel dates and time exposed. There’s no way to stop hackers, so the next best thing to do is to have a tighter security.
One of the new security features is multi-factor authentication. When you log into your account from a new device, be it a computer, phone or tablet, Airbnb will require you to verify your identity. This means that on top of having the correct password, you will also need to enter a one-time unique confirmation code sent to your phone number or email. This is a one-time only action and once you have verified your identity on the new device, you won’t have to do it again on the same device.
Airbnb also added in SMS notification in addition to email alerts, so users can know immediately when changes happen to their account. This will allow users to promptly retrieve their account in the event that they were not the ones who made those changes.
Of course, prevention is always better than cure. Account takeover can happen in a number of ways – password dumps, phishing, and malware. Airbnb already has several security measures to protect its users. It will look for unusual login patterns such as logins from an unexpected country, from an unexpected IP address or device, and an unexpectedly high number of logins from a particular IP address. The best thing we can do on our end is to ensure that we have a unique and strong password, and don’t simply open links you see on the internet.
Check out Airbnb to find out more about its new security measures.
