Ten years ago, Microsoft envisioned a bold future: a world free of passwords. Every year, we celebrate World Password Day by updating you on our progr

Microsoft introduces passkeys for consumer accounts

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Style Pass

2024-05-02 14:30:02

Ten years ago, Microsoft envisioned a bold future: a world free of passwords. Every year, we celebrate World Password Day by updating you on our progress toward eliminating passwords for good. Today, we’re announcing passkey support for Microsoft consumer accounts, the next step toward our vision of simple, safe access for everyone.

In 2015, when we introduced Windows Hello and Windows Hello for Business as secure ways to access Windows 10 without entering a password, our identity systems were detecting around 115 password attacks per second.1 Less than a decade later, that number has surged 3,378% to more than 4,000 password attacks per second.2 Password attacks are so popular because they still get results. It’s painfully clear that passwords are not sufficient for protecting our lives online. No matter how long and complicated you make your password, or how often you change it, it still presents a risk.

The good news is that we’ve made a lot of progress toward making passwords a relic of the past. For a while, you’ve been able to sign in to apps and websites using FIDO security keys, Windows Hello, or the Microsoft Authenticator app instead of a password. Since September 2021, you’ve not only been able to sign in to your Microsoft account without a password, but you’ve also been able to delete your password altogether.3 We’re almost there.