Last week, we released support for FIDO Universal 2nd Factor in Bitbucket Cloud. FIDO U2F is an emerging standard for two-step verification that uses a physical USB key to digitally sign a challenge from a trusted website. It’s a new authentication standard designed to enable small USB tokens, mobile phones, and other devices to act as a secure second factor for 2FA without requiring any additional overhead of installing drivers or client-side software applications.
What does this mean for you?
You may have heard about some high profile breaches and subsequent unauthorized publication of stolen user credentials in the past few weeks. Two-step verification on your Bitbucket Cloud account ensures that your data will continue to be protected even if someone else gets your password.
With U2F, instead of having to enter a TOTP (Time-based One-time Password) every time you want to log in to Bitbucket Cloud, you can simply press a button on a small USB device plugged into your computer. You are also less vulnerable to phishing attacks since security keys will only sign challenges that match the proper domain for the website.
Visit two-step verification settings to add your key. If you do not already have two-step verification enabled, you'll need to enable it before you can use your U2F key with Bitbucket Cloud.
Special Yubikey promotion for Bitbucket users
You’ll need to purchase a security key that supports U2F in order to take advantage of this feature. We’re collaborating with Yubico, co-creator of the U2F protocol, and offering discounts for a limited time through a special offer: Bitbucket teams can purchase up to 10 keys at a 25% discount, (while supplies last). You can find more information about the offer here.
We are proud to be among the first few websites to support this standard. “We applaud Atlassian for their support for the FIDO U2F protocol, by introducing this forward thinking strong public key cryptography two-factor authentication option to their user base,” said Jerrod Chong, VP Solutions Engineering, Yubico. Earning and keeping your trust is part of our customer commitment. Learn more about 2FA and U2F.
