Why do Hulu and Netflix not use 2-factor authentication?

Numerous user complaints ask the same question. And, what to do if your account is compromised?

Streaming service accounts get compromised all the time either due to data breaches, credential stuffing attacks from leaked databases, or simply because of users employing weak passwords.

How accessible a streaming service makes it for a rightful account owner to attempt recovery is what counts.

However, in the case of Hulu it may not be so simple, especially when a compromised account is too old, and let me explain why.

Yes, it happened to me (shame!). An ages-old disposable Hulu account I hadn’t used since college days, and which was setup with a lax password to trial the service, got compromised in January 2020. Personally, I didn’t care that much as this was a throwaway account to begin with, but it’s still better to keep what’s yours to yourself, so I attempted a recovery.

Not only had the attacker changed the account’s password, but additionally changed the email address linked to the account.