After Twitter rolled out its two-factor authentication feature to protect accounts, German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, also known as Kimble, and Kim Tim Jim Vestor claimed he invented the techology.
The patent was filed for in 1998 and granted to Kim two years later, explains that “The invention relates to a method and to a device for the authorization in data transmission systems employing a transaction authorization number (TAN) or a comparable password.” Kim Dotcom tweeted that he has not received any compensation.
The two-factor authentication is SMS-based, which means Twitter sends a code in a text message to a user’s registered phone each time they try to log in from an unrecognized computer. The code changes after each login attempt. This makes it more difficult for hackers to break into others’ accounts.
Kim Dotcom has close to 300k followers and cannot even get Twitter to verify his account.