Microsoft wants passwordless authorization to become the new normal in the near future. The company considers traditional passwords unsafe, and is interested in moving on to safer alternatives like Windows Hello recognition, fingerprints, and other solutions.
A new blog post from Microsoft reveals the company's vision for a password-free future and looks at the steps taken in 2020 in that direction.
The company noted that passwords can be weak and hard to remember. This creates security risks which companies and users want to avoid. Microsoft is working with its partners like YubiKey, HID Global, Trustkey, and AuthenTrend to improve its security solutions, and also shares some usage statistics for its existing options.
- Passwordless usage in Azure Active Directory is up by more than 50 percent for Windows Hello for Business, passwordless phone sign-in with Microsoft Authenticator, and FIDO2 security keys.
- More than 150 million total passwordless users across Azure Active Directory and Microsoft consumer accounts.
- The number of consumers using Windows Hello to sign in to Windows 10 devices instead of a password grew to 84.7 percent from 69.4 percent in 2019.
The blog post names 2021 as the year when passwords should become obsolete for all of the company's customers.There will be new APIs and tools for managing FIDO2 security keys, and a "converged registration portal" which will allow customers to manage their passwordless credentials.
Microsoft believes passwordless authentication methods will make the Internet safer and easier for the end user.
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I can only guess what this means. Hardware authentication? Yubikey is a clue since I’ve heard of that.