Three major tech providers have agreed to introduce support for passkey-based login, in line with recommendations of the FIDO Alliance.
Passkeys have been proposed as one of the possible futures for the death of passwords, and would be freshly generated with each biometric login to a registered device to help prevent password-theft.
In future Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari will all facilitate passwordless login as an option – and major tech providers will offer passkey login for important online services including Active Directory and Azure.
- Apple: “An Expansion of Passwordless Standard Support“
- Google: “One Step Closer to a Passwordless Future”
- Microsoft: “Expansion of FIDO standard and new updates for Microsoft passwordless solutions”
Microsoft estimate that around 330,000 people have removed their password from their Microsoft Account in the last six months – with most using Microsoft Authenticator as a kind of passkey instead.
‘Hackers don’t break in, they log in’ is an often repeated mantra among cybersecurity professionals – reflecting the fact that most online accounts are breached via a normal login attempt, but with stolen credentials.
The FIDO alliance is the the online movement to replace password authentication entirely with single-use passkeys – although the organisation admits there are barriers to entry, including organisations’ cost to develop their own versions of the technology, an unfamiliar user experience, and the reluctance to ‘go first’.
It is hoped that with major tech providers building passkey support into their browsers, many more developers will be able to adopt the new standard to help keep users secure.
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