For every site we need to access, we have an account with a password to remember and even with the help of password managers, these are becoming more and more of a burden for most people.
Gone are the days when it was possible to use and reuse junk passwords like 123456, password, qwerty etc… Now, all online accounts must be protected by strong and unique passwords, you also have to be always vigilant in case one of the many passwords gets compromised.
There must be a better solution to access accounts! Indeed there is, it is passkeys.
Passkeys are a method of authentication for websites and apps first popularized by Apple in June 2022, when the company added support in iOS and MacOS, however it is not an Apple technology. Passkeys is a standard promoted by Google, Apple, Microsoft, World Wide Web Consortium and FIDO Alliance.
Passkeys are cryptographic keys and each passkey is made up of two keys, a public key registered with the online service or app and a private key stored on a device, which can be a smartphone or a computer.
It may seem complicated, but passkeys are designed to be easy to use. In fact, to log in with a passkey you use your face, a fingerprint or a PIN, more or less the same way you unlock a smartphone.
No password in sight, nothing to remember and nothing to accidentally give to a hacker, you are simply asked to confirm the access method (fingerprint, PIN…).
Passkeys can also help solve the problem of having to sync passwords between your devices, let’s say you normally log in to a Google account using a smartphone, but you want to log in using a laptop: you can do it, there is no problem even if the passkey is not synced with the laptop, the important thing is that the smartphone is within Bluetooth range of the laptop and the user approves the login.
What’s even more interesting is that the passkey is not transferred between the smartphone and the laptop, but after confirming the login, the user has the option to create a different passkey on the laptop.
Logging into a website or app with your fingerprint or face is not risky because no biometric information is sent to the website or app you are accessing, the biometric information is only used to unlock the passkey on your device.
The biometric information never leaves the device.
To use the passkey you need to have some system requirements, here are the list:
• A system running at least Windows 10, MacOS Ventura or ChromeOS 109
• A smartphone or tablet with at least iOS 16, iPadOS 16 or Android 9
• Optional: a hardware security key with FIDO2 protocol support The computer or mobile device you are using will also need a supported browser such as:
• Chrome 109 or later
• Safari 16 or later
• Edge 109 or later
Technology giants, Apple, Google and Microsoft, all provide more information on how to use passkeys on their platforms.
But which websites support passkeys? You can find a list of websites that support passkeys at passkeys.io .
Some well-known websites and apps that support the technology are: Adobe, Amazon, Google, GitHub, PayPal, TikTok, Nintendo, WhatsApp and X. Recently we have also seen eBay and Uber add support for passkeys.
Passkeys are becoming increasingly popular and faster.
Google goes one step further, making the default passkey for all accounts, now requires users to create a passkey and use it as their default login.
Using a passkey to log in to your account is about 40% faster and much more secure than using passwords. The mere fact that Google is using it means that their decision will not only help spread the word about passkeys, but will encourage other online services to do the same.
Passkeys should work, whether you use a service through a browser or an app.
But the experience may not be universal. For example, Amazon just rolled out passkey support, but in-app support is currently only available to iOS users. This is really early days for passkeys, and we can expect wider support soon.
If you want to get a feel for how passkeys work but aren’t quite ready to take the plunge and start using them, the best way to experience how they work is to use the demo at passkeys.io . It will walk you through the process of setting up a passkey and how to use it to log in to a site.
If you’re ready to take the plunge, a great place to start is to protect your Google account with a passkey. Not only has Google made the process easy, but there is also plenty of documentation available.
The question is whether passwords are dead, we are very, very far from the end of passwords. Passkeys, just like hardware security keys, offer a way to strengthen your accounts and online services that support this feature.
You will need passwords and password managers for a long time to come.
For every site we need to access, we have an account with a password to remember and even with the help of password managers, these are becoming more and more of a burden for most people.
Gone are the days when it was possible to use and reuse junk passwords like 123456, password, qwerty etc… Now, all online accounts must be protected by strong and unique passwords, you also have to be always vigilant in case one of the many passwords gets compromised.
There must be a better solution to access accounts! Indeed there is, it is passkeys.
Passkeys are a method of authentication for websites and apps first popularized by Apple in June 2022, when the company added support in iOS and MacOS, however it is not an Apple technology. Passkeys is a standard promoted by Google, Apple, Microsoft, World Wide Web Consortium and FIDO Alliance.
Passkeys are cryptographic keys and each passkey is made up of two keys, a public key registered with the online service or app and a private key stored on a device, which can be a smartphone or a computer.
It may seem complicated, but passkeys are designed to be easy to use. In fact, to log in with a passkey you use your face, a fingerprint or a PIN, more or less the same way you unlock a smartphone.
No password in sight, nothing to remember and nothing to accidentally give to a hacker, you are simply asked to confirm the access method (fingerprint, PIN…).
Passkeys can also help solve the problem of having to sync passwords between your devices, let’s say you normally log in to a Google account using a smartphone, but you want to log in using a laptop: you can do it, there is no problem even if the passkey is not synced with the laptop, the important thing is that the smartphone is within Bluetooth range of the laptop and the user approves the login.
What’s even more interesting is that the passkey is not transferred between the smartphone and the laptop, but after confirming the login, the user has the option to create a different passkey on the laptop.
Logging into a website or app with your fingerprint or face is not risky because no biometric information is sent to the website or app you are accessing, the biometric information is only used to unlock the passkey on your device.
The biometric information never leaves the device.
To use the passkey you need to have some system requirements, here are the list:
• A system running at least Windows 10, MacOS Ventura or ChromeOS 109
• A smartphone or tablet with at least iOS 16, iPadOS 16 or Android 9
• Optional: a hardware security key with FIDO2 protocol support The computer or mobile device you are using will also need a supported browser such as:
• Chrome 109 or later
• Safari 16 or later
• Edge 109 or later
Technology giants, Apple, Google and Microsoft, all provide more information on how to use passkeys on their platforms.
But which websites support passkeys? You can find a list of websites that support passkeys at passkeys.io .
Some well-known websites and apps that support the technology are: Adobe, Amazon, Google, GitHub, PayPal, TikTok, Nintendo, WhatsApp and X. Recently we have also seen eBay and Uber add support for passkeys.
Passkeys are becoming increasingly popular and faster.
Google goes one step further, making the default passkey for all accounts, now requires users to create a passkey and use it as their default login.
Using a passkey to log in to your account is about 40% faster and much more secure than using passwords. The mere fact that Google is using it means that their decision will not only help spread the word about passkeys, but will encourage other online services to do the same.
Passkeys should work, whether you use a service through a browser or an app.
But the experience may not be universal. For example, Amazon just rolled out passkey support, but in-app support is currently only available to iOS users. This is really early days for passkeys, and we can expect wider support soon.
If you want to get a feel for how passkeys work but aren’t quite ready to take the plunge and start using them, the best way to experience how they work is to use the demo at passkeys.io . It will walk you through the process of setting up a passkey and how to use it to log in to a site.
If you’re ready to take the plunge, a great place to start is to protect your Google account with a passkey. Not only has Google made the process easy, but there is also plenty of documentation available.
The question is whether passwords are dead, we are very, very far from the end of passwords. Passkeys, just like hardware security keys, offer a way to strengthen your accounts and online services that support this feature.
You will need passwords and password managers for a long time to come.