We’re One Step Closer to a Password-less Future

Apple, Google and Microsoft announced Thursday morning that they’ve joined forces to build support for passwordless sign-in across all of the mobile, desktop, and browser platforms that they control in the coming year.

⚙️ How it works… To use a rough analogy, this future login process is like two-factor authentication and password managers on steroids.

• When you sign into a website or app on your phone, all you’ll need to do is simply unlock your phone – no separate password needed. Instead, your phone will store a FIDO credential called a passkey which is used to unlock your online account.
• To sign into a website on your computer, you’ll just need your phone nearby since you’ll be prompted to unlock it for access. But after you’ve done this once, you won’t need your phone again and can sign in just by unlocking your computer.

📝🤔 Bottom line: According to Google, this new process makes signing in far more secure, as it’s based on public key cryptography and is only shown to your online account when you unlock your phone.

• Weak and easily guessable passwords account for more than 80% of all data breaches, per Verizon’s annual data breach report.