A new Playstation 4 software update is now available for users to download, and while it’s not really a very big update (focusing mainly on system performance), it does set up for the update after that, update 8.00. Playstation 4 update 7.55 is only 471.4 megabytes as well, so it shouldn’t take too long to download.
While the update doesn’t go into much other than “improving system performance”, said by the official Playstation Blog, there is a good amount of other information about update 8. Mainly, that it will actually, finally make use of authenticator apps for two-factor authentication on the Playstation 4.
One of Sony’s biggest issues in the past decade or so has been security for the Playstation Network in general, with there being multiple data breaches that at one point forced Sony to testify in front of a United States Senate subcommittee after a particularly bad one.
With the Playstation 4 update bringing in a more widespread form of two-factor authentication, however, those kinds of breaches may be a thing of the past. Two-factor authentication revolves around users having to use a separate password in order to gain access to their account, with the second password being sent to their phone or being part of an account only they have access to to increase security, which has helped immensely in the past for other games.
Various authenticator apps that can work with Update 8 can be downloaded from the Apple Store and Google Play, though Playstation has also said that they can’t guarantee how reliable some authenticator apps can be.
It also has a number of other features being added, many of which you can find here. However, the Playstation 4 update doesn’t have a release date, so we’ll just have to see exactly how two-factor authentication can affect security for the Playstation Network.
If you’re lucky enough to get an early invite to Playstation 4 update 8.00, you’ll be able to get an early look at what exactly the new update will entail, but hopefully Sony will give a release date for that new update soon.
