Kraken Ramps Up Security With Enforced 2FA and Dedicated Lab

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has introduced two new initiatives, aimed at enhancing client security experience.

Kraken’s recently appointed chief security officer Nicholas Percoco announced in a blog post on Tuesday that the exchange has launched enforced two-factor authentication (2FA) and a dedicated security lab.

Kraken has had 2FA feature for clients since its launch in September 2013, but now clients will be asked to enable the feature upon their next login, Percoco said, adding that the prompted options for 2FA are Google Authenticator and YubiKey currently.

Further, the exchange has formed Kraken Security Labs, aimed to improve the security of the “entire cryptocurrency ecosystem” by performing “vulnerability” research against third-party products, such as hardware and software wallets.

Percoco said his vision for Kraken is to “expand upon the strong, industry leading security foundation,” and utilize advanced security products such as threat intelligence, behavior analytics, adversarial deception techniques, and incorporate them into the exchange’s present and future products.

The officer further said that Kraken will keep coming up with other client-facing security enhancement features in the near future. The exchange’s product management team is going to provide “constant improvement into 2020 and beyond” through its security features roadmap.

“While this roadmap is not made public, you’ll be hearing about security enhancements and upgrades as they are released and made available to you,” Percoco said. “Like most features similar to 2FA, you’ll need to enable them to take advantage of the added security, so please be sure to take action when you’re prompted to.”

Nicholas Percoco image via Kraken