When you visit a website that supports Apple’s Passkeys, enter your user ID during a new registration and then use Face ID and Touch ID, Passkeys is a part of iCloud keychain technology and it is based on Fast Identity Online Alliance’s (FIDO) Web Authentication protocol. Google and Microsoft services already allow passwordless login via biometric authentication for millions of users.
At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in 2020, Apple had announced that users will soon be allowed to sign in to websites on Safari web browsers using Face ID as well as Touch ID.
In addition to this, passwordless signup will also be available for users. In a move being called as a step beyond passwords, Passkeys, will allow you to sign up for services without ever having to enter a password.
When you visit a website that supports Apple’s Passkeys, enter your user ID during a new registration and then use Face ID and Touch ID, instead of a password, to authenticate your user ID. Apple’s Passkeys will be available on iPhones, iPads and iMacs later this year as a technology preview so it will be switched off as default but the user can switch it on and start using it.
Passkeys is a part of iCloud keychain technology and it is based on Fast Identity Online Alliance’s (FIDO) Web Authentication protocol. Apple joined the alliance last year to support password-free authentication. Apple’s charts on multi-level security safety protocols mentions that Passkeys is a safe method of authentication and it prevents phishing attacks.
Users who use Apple products can use Passkeys but it is not available for non-Apple users as a service on their devices. Passkeys only work if you are within the Apple ecosystem and if you go beyond that, you will have to rely on the time-tested way of remembering your passwords.
Google and Microsoft services already allow passwordless login via biometric authentication or by using hardware keys. Microsoft has stated that till March 2020, there are 200 million users who login without using passwords. Apple has also created APIs (Application Programming Interface) for hardware security keys in macOS as well as iOS 15.
Originally published at Times now news