Passwords may soon be a thing of the past now that these major tech companies have extended support for passwordless FIDO sign-in standards.
Sometime this year or next, we may finally get to say goodbye to our passwords. Google, Apple and Microsoft have all extended their commitment to building passwordless support into their device platforms. Over the next year, the three tech giants will implement passwordless FIDO sign-in standards across Android and Chrome; iOS, macOS and Safari; and Windows and Edge. This means that, sooner or later, you won’t need a password to log into devices, websites or applications. Instead, your phone will store a FIDO credential called a passkey, which is used to unlock your device — and your entire online account. A passkey is significantly more secure than a password because it’s protected with cryptography and is only shown to your online account when you unlock your device. Passwords, meanwhile, leave us vulnerable to phishing scams and our own bad habits, like using the same password across accounts. The three companies’ platforms actually already support passwordless sign-in standards created by the FIDO Alliance, an open standards industry body formed to solve password and phishing problems.
