14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook introduced two new account security features, which allows users to receive temporary account access codes on their mobile phones and to terminate active sessions remotely.
Known as one-time passwords (OTP), the access codes are suitable for logging in from public computers or insecure wireless networks.
As their name suggests, these passwords are valid only once and expire if they are not used in twenty minutes after being generated.
In order to request OTPs, users must add a mobile phone number to their account. This can be done from the new security information page and can also serve as an identity verification method if the password is forgotten.
After associating a phone with their account, users can use it to send an SMS message reading "otp" to 32665. This will cause an one-time password to be generated and sent back to them.
Some people will have to wait more than others until they will be able to use this feature, because Facebook is deploying it gradually over the upcoming weeks.
OTPs are already used by banks and financial institutions to give customers access to their online systems, but they only recently started to see a wider adoption.
Such temporary and random codes can be used for authentication either by themselves or together with other methods. The latter is called a two- or multi-factor authentication scheme.
Google recently announced plans to introduce two-factor authentication for all accounts, which adds the option to use OTP-like tokens in conjunction with traditional usernames and passwords.
The second account security feature introduced by Facebook allows users to remotely terminate a rogue log-in session or one accidentally left open on some computer.
A new section called Account Security, present under Account Settings, lists all active sessions and provides links to end any of them.