Rainbow Six Siege update incentivises two-factor authentication

Rainbow Six Siege’s latest update, Operation Grim Sky, releases today – with the usual blend of improvements and updates comes an interesting extra: a bit of a carrot to encourage people to activate two-factor authentication (2FA).

Account holders for the game are being nudged in the direction of the improved security measure – basically you log in, receive a notification on your smartphone, enter a code from the phone, and you’re on the go – with the offer of an in-game reward.

Players who activate 2FA will be rewarded with a Thermite bundle. But it’s not just a reward element -2FA is a requirement as of the latest update if you want to participate in ranked matches. No 2FA, no competing. So it’s a carrot and a stick.

The ability to activate 2FA isn’t currently available for console players, so this only applies on PC for the time being. Naturally the limitations of ranked matches only being allowed for 2FA-toting players don’t apply on PS4 or Xbox One.

The move comes not too long after Epic announced a similar ‘do this and we reward you’ approach to Fortnite, with players activating 2FA bagging themselves an exclusive dance emote.

The push to tighter online security will likely only increase as titles like these become more popular – unscrupulous types will always be looking for a quick and easy way to hijack your account, for whatever reason that might be. Adding in an extra step might seem like an inconvenience for you, but it’s one of the quickest and strongest forms of security you can easily add to any of your accounts.

Also you get free stuff if you do it for things like Rainbow Six Siege and Fortnite, so really there’s no discussion in the whole thing.