A Passkey Future Continues To Grow Closer
As more businesses and private citizens continue to rely more and more on the Internet and third-party online applications and storage for their data and financial activities, security becomes a growing concern, and security breaches are even bigger. “Identity theft,” once an exotic crime that only cyber security experts had to worry about, is now an everyday threat for both people and corporations.
At the heart of this type of cyber security breach is the age-old security standard, the password, and that is one reason why passkeys, which eliminate passwords, are looming large in the future as technology companies collaborate.
The Password Weakness
There are two primary cybersecurity weaknesses to the traditional, single-authentication password system. The first is that the password is a single access system. A password is given to a system, and that system checks to see if the password is correct, regardless of who is providing that password. In other words, a stolen password grants complete access.
The other issue is inconvenience. The best, or “strong,” passwords are long, random strings of alphanumeric characters. Most people can’t remember these, despite their desirability, and so, to avoid that inconvenience, choose weak, easily guessed passwords, making passwords easier to steal.
The Passkey Difference
As The Indian Express explains, passkeys provide two crucial factors that eliminate passwords’ cybersecurity vulnerabilities. This system uses this next-level multifactor authentication, so there is more than one verification system. Passkeys eliminate the use of passwords and instead rely on the interaction of two different passkey systems, a public key, and a private key.
The public key is assigned to a network, and a private key is assigned to a device, like a phone or a laptop, so while there’s a chance a public key or a private key can be stolen, it is unlikely that theft can happen to both. Moreover, an encrypted “puzzle” is sent by the public key, which can only be decrypted and solved by the private key. The encrypted solution is then sent back to the public key, which decrypts and confirms success, thus preventing even online spying from stealing any information due to the encryption taking place during interactions. Because of this, the Fast Identity Online Alliance, or FIDO, is promoting the widespread adoption of passkeys and the FIDO technology behind them. Tech giants like Google and Apple are already implementing, with others like Amazon and Microsoft on the way.
If you’re interested in passkeys and increased cybersecurity, learn more here about Nok Nok’s multifactor authentication technology and passwordless security measures.
