YubiKey 5 NFC

The Yubico YubiKey 5C NFC is one of the best purchases I’ve made for online security. Setup was straightforward, and once configured, it adds a serious extra layer of protection to accounts. I love that it supports both USB-C and NFC, so I can use it with my laptop and just tap it against my phone when needed. It works seamlessly with major services and gives real peace of mind knowing my accounts are protected by hardware-based two-factor authentication. The fact that this pack includes two keys is brilliant — one to use daily and one as a backup stored safely. The build quality feels solid and durable, not flimsy at all. If you take online security seriously, this is a worthwhile investment. Reliable, easy to use, and far more secure than relying on text message codes alone.

I have been after a security key for a while and I'm sure glad I went for this one. Easy to set up and use and compatible and connectivity across windows device and android phone is a big win for me also the ability to have a back up key made and stored. Quality feels strong and robust and there are plenty of covers available

The YubiKey 5 NFC is top-tier in its class: excellent security, broad compatibility, and great flexibility in connectivity. If you care seriously about protecting your accounts, it’s a very worthwhile investment. The trade-offs — cost, need for backup key(s), setup effort — are real but manageable, and in my view acceptable for the level of protection you gain.

I've been keeping my eyes on YubiKeys for the past few years whilst the technology matures and I think it's fair to say it's gotten to a point where they're "mature" enough. Having ubiquitous on any NFC-support Android support and support in iOS since iOS 13 (though apps may require updating) combined with a growing web presence; now is the time to start grabbing these. Generally setup is fairly easy, following whatever process a website has which is typically clicking a button, tapping the gold disc and giving it a tag. I can see these easily replacing TOTP apps and SMS OTPs in the future: in some cases many businesses are already doing this, an example being Google who has issued all of their employees with a hardware security key! Another benefit of this key comes in a particularly unique way: it's a physical way to identify you're at the PC and secondly even if you were to lose this and someone were to find it - they would have no idea what sites or even what accounts it works for! If you're on the fence due to price: Either nab yourself a Yubi Security Key (which is about half the price at time of writing) or question, can you really put a price on good solid security?

Unfortunately some providers are still lagging behind with the option to use these for authentication but for the ones that do these are fantastic. Very simple to use, just took a little while to figure out the most reliable place to hold against my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Presumably newer phone models will be less sensitive. Build quality is excellent and gives confidence that it’ll still work when you really need it.

Secure, cheap and works perfectly.

The Yubikey is a very good very secure device but like anything in the IT security world, it takes a while to learn how to use it and set it up and of course the methods vary, depending on your device types. And buy two, you need a spare just in case you lose one. I use Windows and Android so I have the Yubico authenticator app on my phone and use that to access many of my accounts in the traditional way, by adding an authenticator app to whatever account I want to use the Yubikey to access. When the QR code is presented, with the Yubico app open on the phone and in the accounts page, I press the 3 dots top right then add account, scan the QR code and save the account by re-scanning the Yubikey. I DONT input the presented code to the account yet though, I REPEAT the process for my spare YubiKey's first then when I do the last key and the account is added to all the keys, then I complete the process by adding the one time passcode as requested. Easy! On my PC I plug the key into my USB port and input the pin that I setup using the Yubico authenticator app from Windows store, this way I have to physically touch the copper contact on the key to log into whatever account I have setup using FIDO in this case versus NFC that the phone uses. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to set these keys up, it just takes a day or so to get your head around it if you are new to passkeys, but what's a day or so of learning for the extra security these keys give you? Lastly, some of the reviews are concerned about vulnerabilities in the older firmware but the two keys I purchased have firmware 5.7.1 which is the latest firmware. As for one reviewers post about a criminal running a program on your device, that assumes they have stolen the device AND KEY, can get past the device sign in security and also know the pin number for the key too which you should set for NFC and FIDO. If somebody has your phone, can access it, has your key and knows the pin to it, has your accounts and knows the usernames and passwords, vulnerabilities are already a moot point. These are very good devices adding a level of security that is just not possible with other 2FA methods.

I really liked the idea of this key. For extra security without having to use a authentication app on my phone. But the reality didn't work out as I hoped. The key works but I was only able to get it to work on a handful of websites. I use Linux as my main operating system. And I had a lot of problems getting the key to work with google. In the end I had to set it up on a windows machine with google. It will work on Linux if you install the Yubico App. But with google it needed Windows to configure the key. And a lot of site like paypal I still had to install and setup a authenticator app on my phone just so I could set up the key. Most banks I use didn't even have the option to use a USB key. It worked very well with facebook though. In the end I decided to send the key back. As I didn't want to spend £50 if it only support a few websites. And I still had to put an app on my phone. It a real shame and its not Youbico's fault. It just most site if they have the 2fa option it's with and app or a SMS message.