Google is making its Titan Security Keys available in the UK, Europe and beyond in a bid to boost consumer and enterprise security.
The USB-C keys use cryptography to verify a user's identity and a separate URL to stop would-be attackers from accessing accounts even if they have the username and password.
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They come with a second layer of authentication that makes them resistant to phishing, according to Google, and are also built to work on with other vendors, so you're not locked into the tech giant.
Titan security key bundles with USB-A/NFC and Bluetooth/USBNFC keys were made available in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Italy last year.
Now USB-C Titan keys are on sale via the Google Store to customers in the UK, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Italy for the first time.
The announcement also means that more enterprise customers can enrol onto Google's Advanced Protection Program. This is a safeguard for personal Google accounts that protects against targeted accounts. Within the programme, users can set limits on data access and add extra verification to block fraud.
"Security keys provide the strongest protection against phishing attacks," Google Cloud product manager Christiaan Brand wrote in a blog post. "That's why they are an important feature of the Advanced Protection Program that provides Google's strongest account protections for users that consider themselves at a higher risk of targeted, sophisticated attacks on their personal or work Google Accounts."
Last May it was revealed that a misconfigured Bluetooth pairing protocol could have potentially allowed hackers to hijack accounts. Google issued replacements following the discovery of the vulnerability that exposed users accounts within Bluetooth range.
In a world where weak and reused passwords are all too common, making use of hardware security keys could be the panacea to poor password practices putting valuable data at risk from savvy hackers.
