Yahoo! Mail now with second sign-in verification

More than a year after Google rolled out 2-factor authentication for its Gmail service, Yahoo! is finally beginning to add the option for its users.

Owners of a Yahoo! Account can now activate the second sign-in verification by adding their mobile phone number to their account.

“Once the feature is turned on, any suspicious account sign-in attempt will be challenged by a second sign-in verification beyond the initial password validation. To confirm the legitimacy of the sign-in attempt, you or the hijacker will have to answer your account security question or enter a verification code that will be sent to your mobile phone,” says Andy Wu. “Presumably, only you, as the legitimate user, can sign in.”

For the time being, the option is being rolled out only for users from the US, Canada, the Philippines and India, but the rest of the users will be able to turn on the option by March 2012.