I was very happy with Authenticator until I read about the new wave of phones being stolen after acquiring the iPhone’s passcode such as shoulder surfing. App Lock in settings uses Face ID which is fine, but defaults back to the iPhone passcode if Face ID fails. Worse still is that Authenticator has all your website passwords for any Microsoft account that has been setup in the app. If you have multiple Microsoft accounts the app allows you to switch the account used to sync the passwords without requiring any re-authentication. Most apps that take security serious do not allow this to happen. Instead, they require app specific authentication on Face ID failure. Alternative Authenticators such as Authy and 2FAS prevent this from happening as do banking apps. Is it right that Microsoft is not willing to protect your information beyond relying on Apple’s security. A safe inside your house can protect your valuables.

I want to meet the intellectual genius behind this incredible innovation and (after a healthy dose of throat punches and violent attempts on their life) ask this behemoth of knowledge why tf they thought it would be a cracking idea to not only have this app required for signing in to my account every single time, but also needing this app to sign into this very app itself which, to those of you who do not possess the sheer brain power of those behind this divine creation of god (which surely will be none of you), you may realise that this is a bootstrap paradox that would bewilder Doctor Who. Remember when you could have a password that would let you sign into your account? Those were the good old days. Now you need 20 verification messages and 40 separate apps just to check an email from your lecturer only to find out that you’ve missed the deadline set because you’ve wasted hours of your life constantly on the phone to IT support people. I would say that they only make these useless apps just to give these Microsoft employees something to do but clearly not as no one seems to be making any steps to improve these services. And how is this rated 4.7/5? Maybe all those Bill Gates microchip vaccine people have a point because surely this has to be a brainwashing scheme. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe the failure to sign into this app is a reflection of my lack of technological abilities. Maybe I’m insane. All I know is this app leaves me feeling that maybe all the serial killers in human history had a good thing going.

Having migrated from an iPhone X to an iPhone 13 over the weekend, to my horror I discovered that the Authenticator app was no longer working as it should be an all of my passwords were not performing as they should wear many had been lost. Worst of all, I’ve been locked out of my email account for over a week with very poor support from Microsoft considering they have all of the necessary details to easily identify me as a legitimate user of the account and the administrator. Has been exceptionally disruptive and of course has many on effects with other credentials that go back to my core email including resetting passwords and applications that are equally not working properly after the migration. It is about time Apple, Microsoft, and Google stop sabotaging each other and started to work seamlessly as they should or maybe the merge of monopoly commission should break them all up and enable other players to come into the equation who are far more responsive and agile. I’m disappointed to have to report that the issue has been outstanding for a week and I’m continue to be locked out of my email account.

I think they even used the Authenticator against me to have easier access to my account even when I changed the password, I don’t know for sure though. All I know, is that while using the Authenticator and updating my password multiple times, it still happened to me. It’s a pretty scary experience to have, when they even send an email to your hacked account (like emailing themselves), and especially scary because I thought the Authenticator would make it impossible to do it to me. I also find it scary how there’s bots trying to constantly hack accounts, and I wish things would be safer online. (It showed me even more people trying to login when I had the Authenticator installed, it looked like it was protecting me, but it didn’t in the end.)I doubt anyone would believe me, because there’s mostly 5 star reviews. But that’s what happened, despite keeping it all updated. I had to recover my account and I hope it’s safer now.