Passkey Authentication – A Passwordless Future
Cyber threats are growing every day. In 2019, 2.2 billion unique credentials were exposed in the Collection 1-5 data breach. And as per annual report, 89% of organizations experienced a phishing attack in the past year.
Companies are moving towards passwordless authentication to crack down on phishing attacks, hacking attempts, and other security loopholes.
Passkeys or passkey authentication is a new type of passwordless authentication led by Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO).
It provides a simple, secure, and convenient way to authenticate user sign-in on websites and apps. Unlike traditional passwords, passkeys are phishing-resistant and easy to use.
Passkeys, the new standard of passwordless authentication, uses an authenticator to generate a pair of cryptographic keys. The authenticator can be a smartphone or laptop (built-in platform authenticator) or a hardware security key like Yubikey (separate roaming authenticator).
Moving forward, passkey authentication requires a user to provide a form of validation – a master password or biometrics like facial or fingerprint recognition. Once generated, the user’s passkeys are stored in their device’s secure vault (part of the reason we are named ‘Vault Vision’).
Why Passkeys are Better Than Passwords
Hassle-Free to Create & Use
As a cryptographic entity with private & public keys, there’s nothing about passkeys your customers must explicitly create, remember and use. Users can authenticate themselves for your service with just a single tap.
Your customers will no longer have to remember the sign-in details and manually enter them when they visit your website or app. They just need to select the authentication method, and their device will automatically sign them in once their identity is verified using biometrics or a password.
Secure & Reliable
Unlike passwords, passkeys are strong and guess-proof. All your users will get unique passkeys for every sign-up instance.
The best part is, passkeys are only linked with the website or application they were created for. So, your users are protected from getting tricked into signing into a fraud service.
The private keys of your users will only reside on their devices. As a business, you’ll only have access to their public keys – worthless without their linked private keys.
Scalable
With passkeys, your customers don’t have to enroll in a new credential every time they use a different device. Their keys are available whenever and wherever they need them. However, they just need access to the device securing the passkeys in the first place.
Many platforms like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari, ChromeOS, etc. support sign-in with a passkey from a nearby device.
How Vault Vision uses Passkey Authentication for Auth & Logins on Websites & Apps
At Vault Vision, we support passkeys – Face ID Auth, Pin-based Auth, and Fingerprint Auth. Our service lets you integrate Passkeys so users can securely authenticate themselves via their Apple and Android devices.
We are officially certified by OIDC, and work with Windows, Apple & Android passkeys. Also, we are regularly tested and scrutinized to provide total protection.
Vault Vision believes in open source, so our service is catered to support React, Node, Python, Go, Webflow, and more. We provide a pre-configured no-code setup to help you focus more on the business than its technicalities for rapid fast integration of passkeys.
Apple Passkey
Apple publicly announced its passkey support in June 2022’s WWDC. Passkey is now available on all Apple devices running macOS Ventura or iOS 16.
Passkeys by Apple uses the existing Touch ID and Face ID to help customers create accounts and log in using facial recognition or fingerprint scan.
Apple uses iCloud Keychain to back up and store private keys of passkey authentication. Then, it uses them to match against the public keys of the service a user wants to authenticate after completing biometric verification on their Apple device.
Apple also allows customers to save and sign in using a different device. They simply need to scan the passkey save/sign-in QR code using their device.
Users must enable iCloud Keychain on their supported iDevice and Two-Factor Authentication on their Apple ID to use passkeys.
Google Passkey
On 12th Oct 2022, Google unveiled the news of bringing passkey support to Android and Google Chrome.
The system will ask users to unlock their device to ensure the rightful owner is creating or using a Google passkey. Unlocking will be performed via a fingerprint scan, facial recognition, PIN, or pattern.
Google passkey relies on the Google Password manager to create, backup, and make passkeys available to websites and apps. Moreover, the manager syncs passkeys across the devices signed in to the same Google account.
Users aren’t restricted to using Google passkeys only on their stored devices. Instead, they can use passkeys on any system as long as their primary device is nearby.
Final Words
According to Verizon, 80% of hacking-related activities were linked to stolen credentials. So, we believe it’s time we go passwordless to make our digital space secure and safe.
Automatic generation, uniqueness, and minimal involvement of users make passkey authentication a solid solution to maximize user credential security. Also, its end-to-end encryption nature hides the credentials even from their generators.
Try our Free plan to test how your company can benefit from passkey authentication. We also offer a Professional plan for just $25 per month. And if you want more, contact us to get a quotation for the Enterprise plan.
Sources:
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/passkey
https://developers.google.com/identity/passkeys
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/10/bringing-passkeys-to-android-and-chrome.html
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/sign-in-with-passkeys-iphf538ea8d0/ios
https://fidoalliance.org/passkeys/
https://webtribunal.net/blog/password-stats/#gref
https://www.wired.com/story/collection-leak-usernames-passwords-billions/
