Managing 2FA if travelling/moving to unsupported country, unable to receive SMS?

Question

Managing 2FA if travelling/moving to unsupported country, unable to receive SMS?

I have two factor authentication enabled for my account, and when I travel overseas, I frequently do not have SMS service. Even domestically, visiting my relatives in Montana, I often am completely out of SMS service area while having landline internet access. Now that Apple is requiring authentication tokens for more events (logging into icloud.com for example) this could be really problematic for me. I have 2FA enabled for other platforms that provide an offline token generator (Facebook includes it in their iPhone app, Google has an iPhone app called Authenticator, my banks use Symantec's VIP access iPhone app). These offline token generators only require a device, the app, and a functioning battery.

What is the security solution when out of SMS service area?

Posted on Sep 18, 2014 1:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Sep 18, 2014 2:00 PM in response to Agent Vanilla

Read the bottom of this article for using iCloud keychain in areas where sms is not supported: iCloud Keychain availability by country.

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 22, 2014 9:38 PM in response to randers4

Thanks. This definitely gets me pointed in the right direction. The linked article instruction for keychain management doesn't seem follow-able if the keychain is already "ON". I'm thinking if keychain is set to "ON", the instructions should maybe point to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Account > Keychain > then something.

I'll have to stop by the Genius bar to get this followed through to completion. Thank you!

Reply

Answer 3

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Sep 23, 2014 8:56 AM in response to Agent Vanilla

You're welcome. I suspect they will have to turn off iCloud keychain and start over in order to set it up this way. Good luck!

Reply