Apple, Google and Microsoft have declared "expanded support for the passwordless authentication standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium". The aim is to guarantee a more secure form of authentication for users.
The new standard, the multi-device FIDO credential or passkey, implies that the app or website you are logging into sends a notification to the user's mobile phone which, after unlocking the equipment, authenticates with a PIN code or some other biometric parameter such as fingerprint. The system is very similar to the two-step authentication mechanism, but here the idea is to replace the use of long strings of characters.
“Working with the industry to establish new, more secure login methods that offer better protection and eliminate password vulnerabilities is central to our commitment to creating products that provide maximum security and a seamless user experience – all with the goal of keeping users' personal information secure,” said Kurt Knight, Apple's senior director of platform product marketing, in a press release.
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This new collective commitment was praised by Jen Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), who called it “the kind of forward thinking”.
"At CISA, we are working to raise the cybersecurity baseline for all Americans.,” added Easterly. 🇧🇷Today marks an important milestone in the security journey to encourage built-in security best practices and help us move beyond passwords".
The new system thus assumes that both user devices must have Bluetooth, which can be an additional challenge for older computers.
Arranging complex passwords with lowercase, uppercase and characters to access the most varied applications can prove to be a complicated task. About 23 million people around the world still resort to the password “123456” and many use other simple passwords like “abc123”.
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