The days of having to remember the myriad of passwords you have across all your devices and accounts may soon be over. Apple, Microsoft and Google are now teaming up with the World Wide Web Consortium and the FIDO Alliance to create a new password-free sign-in standard that’ll hopefully allow users to log in and unlock all their accounts and devices without needing to use a single password.
Instead, all you’ll need are biometric scans such as your finger or face and you’ll be able to access everything, even on new platforms or hardware. Pointing out that password-only authentication is one of the biggest threats to cybersecurity, the companies hope that the new end-to-end passwordless standard can prevent future phishing attacks leading to stolen personal information and identities.
“The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives. Any viable solution must be safer, easier, and faster than the passwords and legacy multi-factor authentication methods used today,” said Microsoft’s corporate VP of identity program management Alex Simons in a statement. “By working together as a community across platforms, we can at last achieve this vision and make significant progress toward eliminating passwords. We see a bright future for FIDO-based credentials in both consumer and enterprise scenarios and will continue to build support across Microsoft apps and services.”
While there isn’t a detailed timeline yet as to when these new technologies may be adopted, Apple’s statement says that it will arrive across all platforms “over the course of the coming year.”
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