Passwords are easily forgotten and increasingly difficult to secure, and OTP codes are impractical and can be hacked. Several companies, including Google and Microsoft, are therefore working to replace them, for example by adding biometric authentication and compatibility with FIDO security keys.
On his side, Apple has also made a lot of progress in this area. Kurt Night, Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing at Apple, and Darin Adler, Vice President of Internet Technologies at Apple, today told Tom’s Guide how Passkeys, her unique digital keys that she already had, will work. talked about when iOS 15 was released.
What are Passkeys, these keys that will put an end to passwords?
According to Apple, Passkeys are unique digital keys that are easy to use, but above all more secure than passwords since they are not stored on a web server, but locally on your device. Unlike the 8.4 billion that recently found themselves available online, Passkeys therefore cannot be stolen by hackers during server attacks.
To work, Passkeys use Touch ID or Face ID for biometric verification, and iCloud Keychain for synchronization between iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV with end-to-end encryption. These digital keys are based on public key cryptography. Your device will have a private key that will never be shared, and will authenticate online using the public key available on web servers.
For those who don’t have an Apple PC, the company has thought of everything. A Windows computer can for example generate a QR code that can be read by an iPhone or iPad. iOS will use Face ID or Touch ID to confirm that it is you trying to log in before confirming or denying the request to the app or website running on the other device.
Once adopted by Apple, this technology could quickly arrive at Google, since the company has also been working on its own solution for several years. However, not everyone believes in a world without passwords. For computer security researchers at WatchGuard Threat Lab, this strategy is doomed to failure.
Source: Tom’s Guide