Two-step verification now live for PSN, enable it now

By Imad Khan Published August 25, 2016

Because Sony has a tendency to get hacked, it may not be a bad idea for users to throw in an extra security step for good measure.

Sony has just enabled two-step verification on the PlayStation Network, giving users an extra layer of protection.

Recommended Videos

You can enable it by going to Settings -> Playstation Network Account Management -> Account information -> Security. There, you should see a new 2-step option. If not, check that your Playstation firmware is up to date.

Two-step verification is a form of security that has users confirming their identity on two separate devices. In recent years it has popularly been enabled via cell phones. Using either authentication apps or text messages, users can confirm that they themselves are the ones trying to login to their account. The service will send a message to their phone with a code, and that code is used to authenticate. Many companies now use two-step verification, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Back in 2011, the PlayStation Network was hit with a major hack, compromising 77 million registered users. It forced Sony to shut down the network for two months as it tried to get things under control. It forced many users to call their banks and get new credit cards sent. It also came to light that the PSN was painfully unsecure. Later that year, the PSN was hit with another attack, albeit it wasn’t as disastrous as the first one.

Just last year, Sony Pictures was hit with a massive email hack, leaking millions of emails onto the internet. They revealed the inner bickering of Sony executives, and details of how many movie projects were stifled by corporate meddling.

Sony isn’t the only company in gaming with two-step verification. Xbox users can enable two-step on their Microsoft accounts as well. Nintendo has yet to enable two-step verification, but considering the way in which things are going, it wouldn’t be too surprising if it enables it sooner rather than later.

Users can enable two-step on their PlayStation 4’s under the Account Management menu, or enable it online.

Former Contributor

Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…

Topics

Gaming

Xbox is improving Remote Play, downloads, party chat, and customization on Series X and S consoles

Microsoft is turning up Xbox Remote Play quality to 1440p

Xbox has started putting in some real work to make a comeback in the console race under the leadership of Asha Sharma. The company recently gave physical game discs a digital future at a time when PlayStation is preparing to move away from physical media starting in 2028. It also picked up Hideo Kojima’s PHYSINT after Sony decided to walk away from the project.

Microsoft has also been making changes to the console experience itself. Xbox has now released another batch of features for members of the Xbox Insider program, including better Remote Play quality, background downloads during cloud gaming, more personalization options, and improvements to party chat.

Computing

Exclusive: Microsoft explains why RTX Spark’s Prism emulation is about more than higher FPS

Because an erratic 80 FPS will always feel worse than a silky-smooth 60.

ARC Raiders with Anti-Cheat Support running on NVIDIA RTX Spark Laptop

NVIDIA’s RTX Spark may pack a powerful Blackwell GPU, but its ability to run the massive library of existing PC games on Arm depends on a quieter piece of technology: Microsoft’s Prism emulator. Prism allows x64 Windows games and applications to run on RTX Spark’s Arm-based CPU without requiring developers to immediately rewrite them for ARM64.

During an exclusive conversation at NVIDIA’s private IFA 2026 demo, Microsoft’s Peter Dawoud explained that the latest Prism work isn't just about pushing emulated workloads to higher FPS. Microsoft is also focused on performance consistency, particularly in GPU-heavy games where the CPU still has to coordinate frames, physics, and rendering. Because a higher average FPS doesn't always mean a smoother experience, that could prove to be one of Prism’s most important improvements yet.

Gaming

I played Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Gamescom, and this is way more chaotic than I expected

Four very different vehicles, dangerous shortcuts and enough mid-race chaos to make even a podracer veteran sweat.

Star Wars Galactic Racer Official Image

The first few minutes with Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Gamescom had me thinking I was playing a very pretty, very modern take on Wipeout. Then the race properly kicked off, and the Burnout DNA came roaring through.

That makes perfect sense, considering Fuse Games was founded by former Criterion developers. But knowing that on paper and actually feeling it while racing are two very different things. This is an arcade racer that really doesn't want you to sit back and admire the scenery. You're boosting, dodging, ramming rivals, dealing with power-ups and trying to pick the right racing line, all while the track throws hazards and shortcuts at you. It's loud, chaotic and, occasionally, wonderfully messy.