ssa.gov

A report states that, in order to establish an online Social Security account at ssa.gov, the Social Security Administration must have access to your credit report to verify your identification.

Thus, before freezing your credit (to mitigate the risk of recent hacks), consider setting up an account at ssa.gov first.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) generally combines a cell phone with a username and password to increase the security associated with a login. You need both the username/password AND the cell phone (to receive texts) to log into a system.

In 2016 the Social Security Administration first required 2FA, and then dropped this requirement.

The use of 2FA when signing into ssa.gov is still under study, but not currently required.