Passkey adoption is hitting a rhythm for many organisations adopting next-gen security strategies, lifting users out of password complacency to harness greater security.
Users are very loyal to passwords which are often set up with easily susceptible, personal information, but cybercrime is not tailing off anytime soon. It’s an arms race to deploy the most secure login method to protect against constant attacks. And as a result, passwords are slowly showing their limitations, says Andrew Shikiar, who heads FIDO, in a Mastercard interview.
Online authentication has to be re-imagined to ‘outfox’ AI-powered cyber criminals, reducing dependency on passwords in favour of secure passkeys and allowing more trust, security and interoperability.
In the Consumer Password and Passkey Trends Survey, 36% of respondents said they’ve experienced at least one account compromised due to weak or stolen passwords.
Too often in a third of hacks, compromised logins have been used.
Passkeys offer sign-in credentials with the user’s biometric information or PIN and insulating accounts and transactions against AI scams like phishing.
Andrew Shikiar said “Passwords can be stolen; they can be guessed. They’re susceptible to human error”.
“The whole idea of remote attacks with a hacker pretending to be you and logging in is simply not possible” with passkeys.
Elaborating on verifiable credentials, he said, “This digital approach is more secure, more private and a better user experience than the way we share our identity information today – which often involves giving third parties more information about you than they likely need”. Mastercard has been a key advocate and contributor in unleashing the benefits of passkeys to the wider ecosystem and more use cases. The Payments Working Group is aiming to bring trust, security and interoperability to digital transactions.
