The popular gacha fantasy game Genshin Impact has finally received two-factor authentication after a slew of hackers successfully broke into player accounts, some of which were permanently lost in the process.
Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, is a much-needed feature for Genshin Impact. As a gacha game that has successfully accrued over $1 billion in revenue, mostly via wishing on Genshin Impact's version of the gacha mechanic, it's a big target for hackers. Not only have hackers been able to successfully break into accounts, but the hackers were even able to keep some players' accounts. In one instance, a Redditor showed a message from miHoYo, which said it couldn't confirm that there was malicious activity on the account because the hacker had made many small purchases. But 2FA is miHoYo's response to the ongoing hacking issues.
MiHoYo began rolling out 2FA yesterday. The feature is something all Genshin Impact players should consider taking advantage of. Previously, miHoYo announced that it would permanently link Genshin Impact accounts with the emails on file, the first step in implementing 2FA. While it doesn't look like 2FA is a requirement at this time, players can add a phone number to their accounts to add a second layer of authentication security.
Now, players will be asked to complete security verification when logging in to Genshin Impact on a new device for the first time. Genshin Impact will then send a verification code to the email or phone number on file, and inputting that code when prompted will allow players to start up Genshin Impact. So if hackers were able to log in to a Genshin Impact account with a correct password, they should be unable to log in without the verification code, given that they don't have access to the user's email, and the user will see the notification and know that there's malicious activity.
One thing to note is that if the password is the same between the Genshin Impact account and the email on file, it could still be possible for hackers to access accounts, so it's important to keep passwords separate and change them from time to time to maximize security measures. That being said, 2FA has proven to be effective against attacks. Microsoft previously reported a 99.9% success rate in blocking bots with 2FA.
Players should only see 2FA prompts when logging into a new device, such as opening up Genshin Impact on a mobile device for the first time. After that, they will no longer see the 2FA prompts. Players can also check which devices have been trusted by navigating to the official Genshin Impact website.
Genshin Impact is currently available on mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Nintendo Switch version is expected to release sometime this year.
Source:Â miHoYo
