Now that Microsoft lets you ditch your passwords for Outlook.com, Xbox Live and other online accounts, you might want to consider taking the jump. Dumping your logins can improve security and convenience.
Ditching your password can improve security, if only because it means you don’t have to rely on your memory to get into your accounts. We all have too many passwords to remember and that means we often end up recycling them on multiple sites. You know what that means: One data breach can lead to several of your accounts getting cracked open. (You can use a password manager to minimize the chore, but they can be hard to use.)
Passwordless login also means that if a website is breached, there’s no password for a hacker to steal. Passwordless logins can thwart phishing attacks, which use counterfeit websites to try to steal login credentials, too.
Microsoft’s post-password push arrives in the middle of a major modernization attempt. The company will roll out new Surface products on Wednesday. Next month, Microsoft will release Windows 11 and Office 2021.
A constellation of improvements makes passwordless login possible: biometrics, such as fingerprint and face ID; increasing use of authenticator apps by Microsoft, Google, Okta and others; and a core enabling standard called FIDO, Fast Identity Online, that’s supported by all browsers and operating systems. Among FIDO’s abilities is enabling the most secure login lockdown option, hardware security keys.
News Source: Cnet
