
Two-factor authentication or 2FA is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence (or factors) to an authentication mechanism: knowledge (something only the user knows), possession (something only the user has), and inherence (something only the user is). 2FA protects user data—which may include personal identification or financial assets—from being accessed by an unauthorized third party that may have been able to discover, for example, a single password.
The length and complexity of the 2FA code is also being expanded to thwart or make it more difficult to guess the code being sent.
This is being done to protect the users and conform to global and regional security standards