The adoption of access keys (Passkeys), the biometric authentication technology that it intends in the near future to replace passwords, has increased significantly during the last year until reaching 15,000 million accounts, but it has not yet reached some of some of The ambitious predictions for 2024.
Andrew Shikiar, CEO of Fido Alliance, has been a firm defender of access keys and has not walked around the current state of password -based security. “In a nutshell, passwords are whyHe said during a panel about identity and authentication last week. Users and analysts we agree. Passwords are a highly insecure authentication method (when they are not used correctly) in addition to odious in terms of usability.
Shikiar highlighted the growing vulnerability of multifactorial authentication to sophisticated phishing attacks, particularly because attackers use generative artificial intelligence to create increasingly convincing emails. On the contrary, Access keys offer a solid defense against those threats. “Phishing sites cannot deceive access keys since the rapid and silent exchange of cryptographic keys that makes them work even begins without the participation of the right site”Shikiar explained.
Lack of greater business commitment to access keys
The executive cited impressive figures for adoption by technological giants, and said that Amazon had created 175 million access keys, while Google had enabled them for more than 800 million accounts. They are also much faster and easier to use than traditional authentication methods.
Despite these promising figures, the adoption of access keys has not achieved the ambitious objectives established in previous years. Last year, Shikiar predicted that accounts enabled with access keys would reach 20 billion by 2025. However, in early January, the figure stood at just over 15 billion. While this represents significant growth, it is well below its projections and those of others. “We are in a strong adoption phase, but we are still at an early stage”.
While technology has proven to be effective in simplifying session with a simple digital footprint touch, Many companies continue to doubt this innovation. Shikiar expressed his disappointment for the slow adoption of technology by airlines and hotel chains, sectors that he had identified as the main candidates for their implementation.
Among the improvements to increase the adoption of access keys, highlights the improvement of the user interface to facilitate its use. And also reduce the confusing messages of the suppliers of operating systems and browsers for promoting their services. “There are too many chefs in the kitchen, and each one believes that he knows the correct way to make a cake”they comment in Ars Technica, suggesting that There should be a universal standard.
