Article
Microsoft Wants to Replace Your Passwords With Passkeys, and They Might Be Onto Something
Timothy Jacob Hudson
- The long and short of it is the fact that Microsoft wants passkeys to be the future of security for Windows 11 users, and it will have an impact on you eventually.
- problem with passwords is that they can be guessed or determined by threat actors, using a variety of methods, like brute force, keylogging, password spraying, and more. If they can figure out your password, they can gain access to any information that password is protecting.
- passkey is a pair of cryptography keys, a private key and a public key, which, when combined, unlocks your account without ever having to input a username or a password. Websites and apps will store a unique public key, while the device you are using keeps your private key. After you verify your identity on your personal device, the two keys will combine and give you a unique passkey.
- passkeys aren’t stored on servers, they reside on your personal device. This means your passkey can’t get leaked in a data breach like passwords can. Two, even if a passkey is somehow compromised, it doesn’t open up all of your accounts to attack. If you are the type of person to use similar passwords across accounts for different services, one compromised password places everything at risk. Passkeys don’t have that problem.