Can you remember all your passwords accurately? For example, can you remember your mobile phone unlock password, WeChat login password, QQ login password, email password, Microblog password, all kinds of bank card passwords, and so on? Do you have to go through the process again every time you forget your password until you forget it again?
In 2018, Ali customer service released big data of elderly users’ consultation, which showed that more than 50% of elderly users’ most common consultation problem forgot the account password. In addition, Microsoft has noted that almost 80 percent of cyber attacks are targeted at passwords in its blog post. So it seems that while passwords bring people a sense of security, they also seem to hide specific problems. In the face of all this trouble, Microsoft has declared the age of passwordless.
Microsoft has reportedly announced that it will allow users to delete passwords from their Microsoft accounts, launch a passwordless era. Starting September 15, the Internet giant will allow consumers to log in to their Microsoft accounts using a Microsoft authentication program, Windows Hello, a security key, or an SMS/email verification code instead of a password.
Microsoft Open the Passwordless Gate
Microsoft announced that starting September 15, users are able to completely remove the password to their Microsoft account and choose to log in to the device through Microsoft’s authentication program or some other form of authentication. Microsoft added passwordless logins to corporate and school accounts back in March, but this is the first time Microsoft has offered passwordless logins to regular personal accounts. Microsoft has been working for years to usher in passwordless logins, and the pandemic will only accelerate that progress. Microsoft believes that many companies have been forced to telecommute during the pandemic, and the demand for security will only increase during the digital transition.
This is a significant milestone for Microsoft in ushering in a passwordless era, as the company enabled secure Keys in 2018 and made Windows 10 passwordless in 2019. More than 200 million people are already using the passwordless option, and Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft’s vice president of security, compliance, and identity, is optimistic about consumer adoption.
How to Enable the Passwordless Login?
If you already use this feature, you don’t need to change how you log in to your device.
For other users, deleting passwords is also a relatively simple process. Start by installing the Microsoft Authenticator mobile app and linking it to your personal Microsoft account. Once you’re done, you can go to account.microsoft.com, select advanced security options, and enable passwordless accounts in the Additional Security section. This change is then approved through the Authenticator application, and the password is no longer required. Of course, users can always reverse this change and add a password to their Microsoft account in the future.
Advantages of Passwordless Login
Passwordless login authentication has certain advantages. First of all, most people create their own passwords. However, creating a password that is secure and not easy to forget is a challenge for users. Furthermore, if passwords are not properly managed, it is easy to forget or mix up your passwords, which can be very difficult to deal with. Passwordless logins can help solve this problem to some extent.
In addition, passwordless accounts improve security by removing passwords from the equation altogether. People often reuse their passwords across multiple accounts. Even if users use two-factor authentication to protect their Microsoft accounts, once an attacker knows a user’s Microsoft account password, they can still try it on other sites to see if the user has reused it anywhere else. This creates a problem: once a user’s password is compromised, an attacker can quickly log into the user’s other accounts. Passwordless operations also seem to solve this problem to some extent.
The Dilemma of Passwordless Features
Despite the industry’s efforts to get developers and users to participate in a passwordless world, media analytics still has two difficulties.
For one thing, while passwords are widely despised and considered archaic by many, they have become so familiar that they are so ubiquitous that it’s not easy to break a decades-long habit.
“It’s a habit,” said Andrew Shikiar, executive director of the FIDO Alliance, an industry association that has long worked on security certification. “The first thing anyone does is set up a password. We need to break that habit.” However, it is a difficult process.
The second obstacle is trickier. Even with all this in place, many passwordless schemes will only work on newer devices and must have both a smartphone and at least one other device.
More time and experimentation are needed to create a passwordless ecosystem that can replace all password functions and not leave behind the billions of people who don’t have smartphones or multiple devices, some medias said. In a passwordless world, it is more difficult to share accounts and credible and everything bundled in the mobile devices, making hackers want to destroy a device more.
The Passwordless Future
Last month, Microsoft hired Charlie Bell, the head of Amazon’s cloud business, to join its team. On September 15, the same day Microsoft announced the passwordless era, its new role internally — Bell will lead a new engineering group within Microsoft responsible for security, compliance, identity, and management.
Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president of communications, issued the following statement: “We believe Charlie Bell’s new role will help advance cybersecurity in the United States and across the technology industry.”
Bell said on LinkedIn: “We all want a world that is always safe, a world that is always right… We all want a digital civilization. I believe Microsoft is the only company that can do this, and I’m thrilled to be working with this talented team to make everyone and every organization in the world safer.”
Maybe the crypto-free era will come to life with Charlie Bell, but we’ll see.
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