World Password Day: Google, Apple, Microsoft May Make Passwords A Thing Of Past

Big tech firms, including Apple, Google and Microsoft have extended their support in favour of passwordless sign-ins that has been created by the FIDO Alliance in collaboration with the World Wide Web Consortium.

Passwordless FIDO sign-ins will be implemented across platforms by Google, Apple and Microsoft. Image: Getty

New Delhi: It's World Password Day today (May 5) and big tech firms, including Apple, Google and Microsoft have extended their support in favour of passwordless sign-ins that has been created by the FIDO Alliance in collaboration with the World Wide Web Consortium. Over the next year, these three tech companies will remove the usage of traditional authentication methods and put in place passwordless FIDO sign-ins across their device platforms.

This is being done with an aim to let apps and websites offer consistent, secure and easy passwordless sign-ins across devices and platforms and finally bdi goodbye to traditional passwords. This means passwordless FIDO sign-ins will be implemented across Android and Chrome by Google, iOS, macOS and Safari by Apple and Windows and Edge by Microsoft.

“‘Simpler, stronger authentication’ is not just FIDO Alliance’s tagline — it also has been a guiding principle for our specifications and deployment guidelines. Ubiquity and usability are critical to seeing multi-factor authentication adopted at scale, and we applaud Apple, Google, and Microsoft for helping make this objective a reality by committing to support this user-friendly innovation in their platforms and products,” Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance, said in a statement.

“This new capability stands to usher in a new wave of low-friction FIDO implementations alongside the ongoing and growing utilization of security keys — giving service providers a full range of options for deploying modern, phishing-resistant authentication.”

The big tech companies are of the opinion that improvements in password management and two-factor authentication have made digital life safer, however, there is still scope on what they can do to protect users.

“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing.

“Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.” 

The three tech giants already provide support for the FIDO Standard. However, as per the current implementation, users have to still log into each app or website on each device before they can enable a passwordless sign-in way.

“This milestone is a testament to the collaborative work being done across the industry to increase protection and eliminate outdated password-based authentication,” said Mark Risher, Senior Director of Product Management, Google.

“The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives. Any viable solution must be safer, easier, and faster than the passwords and legacy multi-factor authentication methods used today,” says Alex Simons, Corporate Vice President, Identity Program Management at Microsoft.