Apple, Microsoft and Google have joined forces to propose a new generation of identification means. It would simply allow not to use a password anymore. In a few months, we might not have to remember our passwords anymore, whether we use Safari, macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome…
The end of the password announced for several years already
Six years earlier, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) started a project with a specific mission: to remove passwords. Earlier, several big names like Microsoft, Google and PayPal had come together with the same idea in mind and created the FIDO Alliance. This complex task will be completed in 2019, with the official WebAuthn standard the result of a collaboration between the FIDO Alliance and W3C. The only thing left to do is to implement it and democratize it.
” Just as we design our products to be intuitive and powerful, we also design them to be private and secure ” said Kurt Knight, director of platform product marketing at Apple. ” Working with the industry to establish new, more secure login methods that provide better protection and eliminate password vulnerabilities is at the heart of our commitment to building products that provide maximum security and a seamless user experience – all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe. ”
The operation of this mode of identification is ultimately quite simple. Users can log in to an online service, as they usually do already. Only, so that the site can verify their identity without a password, they will be asked to use a secondary device. They will be able to use several solutions for verification, including the front camera, or the fingerprint reader. For the more reluctant, it will also be possible to use a simple code, or even draw a shape.
If these standards are already integrated in billions of devices and recent browsers, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have taken the lead in extending their capabilities to support them on their platforms. They have also helped extend these features to mobile devices, with access to credentials, or even login authorization for a nearby device. “ For example, users can log in on a Google Chrome browser running on Microsoft Windows – using a password on an Apple device Vasu Jakkal, VP of security at Microsoft, said.
Without it, the user experience would certainly have been decried, and the adoption of this password-free world would have been complicated. Now that these flaws have been ironed out, the FIDO Alliance is announcing a launch by 2023.
