Yubikey 101 #2: Why Should You Care?
Part 2: Why Should You Care?
Hello again tech-boys and -girls! In the last episode I covered the basic knowledge required to understand what a Yubikey is. With that out of the way I will now show you some of the nice things you can do with them. The list is based on my own experience and things I have successfully managed to do so far, not on what is theoretically possible. Maybe I will cover that as well in the future, who knows.
- Encrypt & decrypt files without the need to remember a password
- Sign documents to make sure no one can change them without your approval
- Encrypt & sign e-mails directly in Outlook or Thunderbird
- Use for SSH authentication (yes, this works with GitHub ;)
- Increase security of online logins with a second factor that is orders of magnitude safer then e.g. using Google Authenticator on your phone (maybe give those bitcoin-wallets a little security upgrade?)
Next time
My new YubiKey 4 just arrived! This means next time I will take you through the whole process of setting a up your first Yubikey, so prepare for a very long post.
I also set up the Yubikey as a smartcard for Windows.
Can use it as a smartcard with a PIN to logon to Windows boxes either locally or via Remote Desktop.
Very cool! Did you set it all up yourself or did you follow some tutorial? If so, can you please post a link to it?