Microsoft began rolling out passkey support to its consumer accounts in May 2024, allowing users to sign in with their face, fingerprint, or device pin as an alternative to a password. In May of this year Microsoft shifted to making passkey the default sign-in for all new Microsoft accounts.
According to Microsoft, the point of passkey is to make the future password-less and to counteract the close to 4,000 password attacks estimated to occur worldwide every second.
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How does passkey work?
Instead of a single vulnerable secret password that can be stolen or guessed by hackers, passkey access uses two unique keys known as a cryptographic pair.
One key is stored on your devices guarded by your biometrics or pin, and the other key stays with the app or website for which you created the passkey. The key combination is unique to you and a successful sign in requires both keys to work.
Passkey represents a change to the way most PC users have logged in previously. I’ve always used a password to log in to my Microsoft account and was skeptical at first, but after doing a bit of research, I’ve changed my mind about it. Here are the four reasons I’m now glad I now use passkey.
1. It’s so much quicker than using a password
I timed myself typing in my password versus using my passkey and I judge it takes me on average 3 seconds less to log in via a passkey than with a password (that’s taking into consideration the spelling mistakes I often make) using Windows Hello login. It may be just a short amount of time, but it feels a lot faster, which makes a difference to my day.
2. Security is stronger
Passkey uses both a public cryptography key and a private pin. That means there’s a component linked to my physical device and requires biometric or a pin authentication, so there’s no chance that my login will be stolen via a phishing attempt or my account will be taken over by hackers.
3. I can use my passkey across all my devices
I used to remember a bunch of complex passwords on my different devices, but now, since I can use passkey across devices, I can log in quickly and easily without even needing to remember one password. What’s more, if I lose or upgrade my device my passkey will be ready and waiting for me when I set up my new device.
Pexels: Tara Winstead
4. I can use it to sign into my most used websites
Having a passkey simplifies signing into Microsoft apps and websites like Microsoft 365 and Copilot on desktop. Plus, the number of websites that use passkey is expanding all the time.