How stress-free would signing into a service without needing a password be? That’s just the tip of the iceberg on how our digital life will look beyond the use of passwords. We’ve come to a point where we need to deploy the best, most secure, and safest technologies, and one is passwordless authentication.
Suppose you are one of the 80% of online users who express apprehension about the safety of their online accounts. In that case, you should fully embrace what the future offers: the ability to verify users without any string of passwords. Currently, many resources are being apportioned by businesses and even individuals, all due to the effect of the unsafe nature of passwords.
In our quest for more robust digital security, we need to let go of the past, and this means letting go of passwords. To be frank, passwords have served their purposes, and we cannot allow ourselves to be limited by our emotional attachment to cramming and changing passwords. With passwordless authentication, we are giving hackers fewer opportunities to attack and manipulate us.
You’ll notice that if businesses are not using password managers, they store their passwords in spreadsheets. We are leaving too many digital trails for us to be attacked. There’s an enormous power in no longer having to use a password. Currently, that power is in the hands of our attackers, let’s take it back from them.
In this piece, attention will be on describing the immense benefits that are associated with a switch to passwordless authentication.
The Power of Passwordless Method of Authentication
Simply put, passwordless authentication eliminates the use of passwords for gaining authorized access to a platform. The nature of private enterprise passwordless authentication incorporates a number of technologies and groundbreaking innovations. Henceforth, you will no longer have to cram and store dozens of passwords, and pins.
True passwordless security is far more powerful and safer than all other known forms of traditional authentication methods. While 91% of internet users know that there’s a lot of danger involved in reusing passwords, you’ll still be surprised that 75% of these categories still fall into this conundrum. It’s not really their fault, this is due to the stress associated with changing and re-changing passwords.
The nature of password authentication provides cybercriminals who can easily hack, crack, guess, and steal these passwords. But with passwordless authentication, there’s nothing to steal, guess, or hack any longer.
We’ve seen tech giants move to passwordless authentication methods. For example, Microsoft has been able to incorporate passwordless login options into its products and services. Microsoft’s Windows Hello uses facial recognition and fingerprints to access Microsoft’s products. There’s also Microsoft’s Azure that deploys a FIDO2 security key in accessing the resources
There’s also Google which has made a move to passwordless login methods. If you have a Google account, you can now log in to these accounts using fingerprints, or facial recognition.
When it comes to the power of passwordless authentication, extends to as far as improving the consumer experience. All your customers will need will be an email address, fingerprints, or phone number to register an account. There’s also the issue of cost of ownership, as managing passwords is expensive. There’s a lot to deal with; password reset processes, password hashing and storing, password expiration, and other password complexity policies.
Passwords Vs. Passwordless: The Way To The Future
We’ve severally established that passwords are easily breachable. If it’s not stolen, it can be guessed, or compromised. Outside of these known issues of the frustrating nature of passwords, there’s also the argument as to the carbon footprints being generated by passwords. While no one has paid attention to this in the past an annual use of passwords in the United States alone leads to greenhouse emissions equivalent to close to 900,000 cars.
This is due to the time and energy it requires to type in and reset passwords. There’s arguably no one that does not reset passwords in the space of a year. It’s a regular occurrence that is both frustrating and antiquated.
Final Thoughts
The security advantages of passwordless logins are limitless. For enterprise users, the perks of implementing passwordless authentication are massive for your business and your profitability. Your business even stands to benefit more than just your customers.
Imagine what it implies for your customers to be able to save their payment information on file. They can easily pay and use it in the future, without needing to memorize any long passwords. This will prompt multiple repeat transactions that will be to your benefit as a business.
Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are leading others in adopting passwordless authentication. Their user can now use facial or fingerprint authentication or hardware tokens as multi-factor authentication.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
