As passwords slowly go extinct, Microsoft is introducing another way to log in to your consumer account.
The company said Thursday that users logging in to Microsoft 365 workplace software, Copilot, Xbox and Skype can now use “passkeys” rather than traditional passwords or an authenticator app. That means whatever biometric authentication (such as a thumbprint or face ID) you use to open your phone or computer will be all you need to access your Microsoft account. Passkeys are available on desktop and mobile browsers starting Thursday, with support for mobile apps in the coming weeks, the company said.
Cybersecurity professionals and organizations such as the FIDO Alliance, an industry group that includes Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, have been pushing consumer tech companies to retire “shared secret” passwords for the past decade. These passwords aren’t so secret — because people have so many to remember, they constantly lose or forget passwords, which leads to lost time and money for consumers and companies alike. Hackers, meanwhile, steal passwords in data breaches. Last year there were more than 3,000 breaches in the United States alone, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Microsoft says its identity systems detect around 4,000 password attacks each second.
Passkeys, on the other hand, can’t be stolen or forgotten. They’re strings of letters and numbers that are unique to your account, stored on your device or in a safe cloud environment. You don’t need to memorize them — they’ll automatically unlock your accounts when you go to log in.
Microsoft has been working on passkeys since FIDO introduced the technology two years ago, said Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president of Microsoft security. The company wanted to wait to release passkeys until they could function across consumer accounts, Jakkal added.
Many sites have adopted passkeys, including Uber, TikTok, Amazon, PayPal and Nintendo. Here’s how to set them up for your Microsoft accounts.
To learn how to setup a passkey, click here.
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