Two-factor Authentication Becomes Even Easier with Nextcloud

06.06.2025 Phishing attacks are an increasing problem for account security, including your sciebo account. Phishing means that attackers trick you into revealing your passwords through cleverly forged emails or websites. To prevent third parties from accessing your data, even if they have discovered your password, a second factor is often used for authentication.

While the first factor is your password, the second factor often consists of a six-digit number, known as the TOTP key ("Time-based One-Time Password"), which is generated using an app on your smartphone and is only valid for one minute. Intercepting this key is hardly useful for attackers. The use of two-factor authentication therefore significantly increases security.

Two-factor authentication is also available for logging in to the sciebo web interface and must be activated in the settings. With the migration to Nextcloud, a second method is now being added, which is slightly more convenient to use: two-factor authentication via Nextcloud notifications. This procedure relies on the fact that most users are connected to sciebo on one of their devices (usually via the sciebo desktop client on their desktop PC or laptop). As a second factor, a message is automatically sent to all connected clients when logging in to the web interface, which you simply need to accept. Entering a numeric code when logging in to the web interface is no longer necessary.

Pro tip: For sciebo accounts protected by a second factor, certain applications (e.g., a calendar client) may have difficulty accessing them. In such cases, an app password can be set up in the sciebo web interface settings. These random passwords are very long and individualized for each application, allowing specific devices to be blocked.