Two-factor authentication (2FA) requires users to enter a randomly generated 6-digit verification code generated by an authentication app every 30 seconds in addition to entering the correct password when logging into their account. Users must complete these two steps before being able to access their account.
Importance of Account Security
There are many scammers online who steal other people’s accounts to do bad things, and there are many possibilities for the account to be stolen, such as viruses or trojans on the hardware itself, or being cracked by brute force.
Many hacked Discord accounts are used to spread malicious links to the account’s friends or servers. If the Discord account has certain server management permissions, such as being a MOD (moderator) of an NFT server, it may be used to post false announcements and deceive unaware members into clicking on links to malicious websites, causing many innocent victims to suffer financial losses. Therefore, protecting account security is not only to protect one’s own reputation, but also the only way to avoid losses to family, friends, or servers.
How to Enable Discord Two-Factor Authentication
In today’s online environment, having a strong password is no longer enough to ensure account security. Therefore, many online services have introduced 2FA (two-factor authentication) functions, also known as dual authentication or two-step authentication.
Enabling two-factor authentication on Discord only requires four steps:
Step 1: Click on Enable Two-Factor Authentication
To open the settings page, click the gear icon in the lower right corner of the user settings, then click “My Account” and “Enable Two-Factor Authentication”.
open user settings
Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Discord will then require the user to enter their password before continuing with the following steps.
enter password
Step 2: Install The Authentication App
Next, a window with three steps will appear. Discord currently supports two authentication apps: Authy and Google Authenticator. Personally, I have been using Google Authenticator for a long time, so I will use it for demonstration. First, download and install Google Authenticator on your phone.
three steps to enable two-factor auth
Step 3: Link Discord Account with Authentication Application
After installing Google Authenticator on your mobile device, open the app and click the “+” icon in the bottom right corner. Then select “Scan a QR code,” and scan the QR code image provided by Discord specifically for you (as shown in the above image).
Google Authenticator app on a mobile device
Step 4: Enter The Verification Code to Complete 2FA Activation
After completing step 3, you can see a new title called “Discord (displaying the registration email of your Discord account)” and a set of 6-digit verification codes that appear every 30 seconds on the homepage of the Google Authenticator app. Before the verification code disappears, enter it into the box in the bottom right corner of the diagram in step 2 and click “Activate” after entering.
Once successful, you can see the “2FA is activated!” screen as shown in the figure below, and the two-factor authentication setup is complete.
2FA is activated!
Enabling Discord Server Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Requirement
If you are the owner of a Discord server and want to improve its security, you can choose to enable the 2FA requirement in the server security settings.
After enabling this setting, member accounts with administrative permission in the server must enable two-factor authentication before they can exercise their administrative permission in the server. This can prevent members with administrative permission from posing a security risk to the server due to their accounts being compromised because they did not enable two-factor authentication.
To enable this, the server owner first clicks on the server name in the upper left corner, then selects “Server Settings. Then click “Safety Setup”, and click Permissions’s edit button, then enable “Require 2FA for moderator actions”. After entering the verification code from Google Authenticator, the two-factor authentication requirement for server administrators can be enabled.
enable require 2FA for moderator actions
