Passwords May be a Thing of the Past

Let’s face it: no one likes passwords.

Creating them, remembering them, typing them in. No one has time for it.

Your whole mood can changes when the application you’re using suddenly logs you out, and then you have to go through the dreaded login all over again.

Passwords are causing a lot of frustration, not only at home, but at work as well. But we have some good news!

This is all courtesy of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. The tech giants have joined forces to kill off the password for good.

Over the coming year, they plan on rolling out no-password logins across all of their platforms! But how will they do this? They will start using a standard set by the FIDO (Fast Identification Online) Alliance. This essentially sets the worldwide standards for passwordless authentication.

We know, that’s a bit of a mouthful… so some people call this a passkey. This term that is little easier to remember.

A passkey works in a similar way to multi-factor authentication (where you use a separate device to prove it’s really you), but with less effort required.

But how does it work?

It’s very simple. To login to something, you’ll just use your phone to prove it’s really you.

Your computer will use Bluetooth to verify you’re sat nearby. Because Bluetooth only works a short distance, this should stop many phishing scams. This is just one of the extra benefits a passkey will offer.

Next it’ll send a verification message to your phone.

You’ll then unlock your phone in the usual way, with your face, fingerprint, or PIN.

And that’s it. It’s simple, you’re all logged in.

Passkeys rely on something called public key cryptography. When you register with an application or website a key pair is made between the website and your phone.

These are really long numbers that are connected in some way. But you’ll never see them, and you certainly don’t have to remember them. So you don’t need to do anything with them, it will just be there to help you login faster. Your phone verifies the pair when you unlock it in the normal way.

And you don’t have to worry about losing your phone. It’s not enough to just have your device… someone has to be able to unlock it as well.

Your passkeys will be backed up in the cloud, so if you get a new device, you can simply transfer over your information. This will just makes things simple and easy. In the same way it’s now easy to set up a new phone to be just like your old device.

These passkeys are not only simpler for you, but should keep your data safer.

How exactly does it keep your data safer?

There is no password for cyber criminals to steal. And your phone needs to be close to your computer to login. It’s not fool proof, but it’s a lot better than the current situation with passwords and multi-factor authentication.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. Are you excited to say goodbye to traditional passwords? Drop us an email to let us know.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.