What is TOTP multifactor authentication?

TOTP stands for Time-based One-Time Passwords and is a common form of two factor authentication (2FA). Unique numeric codes are generated with an algorithm which uses the current time and a secret seed key as inputs. The time-based codes are available offline and increase account security when used as a second factor.

TOTP is also known as token based authentication, software tokens, or soft tokens. Mobile phone based authentication apps like DUO, Authy and Google Authenticator support the TOTP standard.

Example TOTP accounts in the Google authenticator app.