Know a Little More · Daily Tech News Show

About Authenticator Apps

·12 min·1 clip

Tom Merritt uses the story of paranoid friends Kelly and Al multiplying a secret number by the hour to explain how TOTP codes work.

This episode provides a clear, technical explanation of how authenticator apps work for multi-factor authentication. Host Tom Merritt breaks down time-based one-time passwords (TOTP), explaining how shared secrets, algorithms, and Unix time synchronization create secure, changing codes without internet transmission. The episode compares authenticator apps to other MFA methods like SMS and hardware keys while looking ahead to passkeys.

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