OpenAI announces new advanced security for ChatGPT accounts, including a partnership with Yubico

OpenAI is getting serious about account security.

The company on Thursday launched Advanced Account Security (AAS), a set of opt-in protections for ChatGPT users designed for high-value individuals — but available to anyone who wants them.

As part of that new program, digital security provider Yubico announced it has partnered with OpenAI to link two new security key products to ChatGPT accounts. The company said the partnership was designed to protect users from the threat of phishing, which is considered to be a growing threat for chatbot user

The two companies are releasing a pair of “co-branded” YubiKeys — dubbed the YubiKey C NFC and the YubiKey C Nano.

OpenAI has suggested that AAS is a good fit for political dissidents, journalists, researchers, and elected officials — people who engage in politically charged and risky work. One would assume that it might make sense for enterprise users, whose corporate secrets are squirreled away in ChatGPT sessions.

“Ultimately, our intent is to drastically reduce the threat of unauthorized access to sensitive data in OpenAI accounts worldwide,” Yubico CEO Jerrod Chong said in press release announcing the deal.

Security keys are small pieces of hardware that can be tied to digital accounts and enacted through a computer’s USB ports. A unique cryptographic identifier lives on the key, which allows only the person in possession of it to log into a connected account.

If the threat of phished ChatGPT accounts may seem somewhat abstract, there is a growing body of literature showing that bad actors are increasingly targeting chatbot users. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for extortion-worthy information and, given the intimate nature of most chatbot conversations, there is plenty of fodder when it comes to both enterprise and personal-level users.

Digital security is also becoming a bigger focus of the AI industry. Several weeks ago, Anthropic announced a new cybersecurity model called Mythos. Perhaps seeking to steal some of its competitor’s thunder, OpenAI has also made a number of announcements related to digital security. Thursday’s news of the Yubico partnership followed OpenAI’s announcement that it’s launching a new framework for digital defense.

Of course, a security-key-enabled account does offer stronger protection, but it comes with a tradeoff: If the key is lost, OpenAI won’t be able to help recover access. In practice, that means conversations could be lost for good.

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