Two-step authentication with OATH

You have just moved your desired product to the shopping cart of your favourite online shopping website. The website asks for your preferred mode of payment. You enter the details of your bank/card and click to proceed. Just before your payment is complete, you have one more step to complete. On the screen in front of you is a text box which expects 4 digits. But where do you get those 4 digits from? That’s when your phone pings. You reveal the source of the ping to be an SMS that contains 4 digits. The same digits that you need to enter on the screen to complete your payment. With the magic digits entered, your payment is unlocked and your product will soon be on its way.

Welcome to the world of OATH or Open AuTHentication, a specification that uses two steps of authentication to make sure that your transactions are truly safe. Let’s read how OATH works.

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