Microsoft Adding Account Security

By now most people with enough internet expertise to read an article on a website have encountered account security of one sort or another.  Passwords, email-delivered verification codes, text message security keys, and the like are all standard fair for the digital age of media and entertainment.  Microsoft is of the mind that if one security verification is good, surely two is better.

Microsoft is going to be shifting over to a new two-step authentication process over the next “couple of days” for all accounts across all platforms.  The idea is to universalize the way your different Microsoft devices and programs interact and communicate with each other, using the new security to enable them to grant greater freedom to the various sources of Microsoft accounts by verifying them all together.

This two-step process will require two different forms of verification for each login attempt, one of which can be a password.  The other verification could be, for example, a code sent via email or text message.  While the added security is obvious, the overall effect on services such as Xbox Live remains to be seen.