Benefits of Passwordless Authentication

Authentication in simple terms verifying that you are who are you. Even though it sounds simple this remains a difficult problem to solve in the digital world. According to many data breaches, still “password” and “123456” is the most popular passwords used among people. In today’s digital world most users know about the risks of weak passwords but still, people prefer convenience over security.

What is Passwordless authentication?

Passwordless authentication is a reliable way of authenticating one’s identity without the use of passwords or any other memorized secret and remains the ultimate solution for insecure authentication for identity and access management (IAM) solutions.

Benefits of using passwordless authentication

The most apparent benefits of passwordless authentication are it offers better security, a better user experience, cheaper to own, and remains a superior security solution in every aspect. Let’s have a detailed look at the benefits of using passwordless authentication.

Better User Experience (UX):

Passwordless authentication makes you feel streamlined user experience by pushing out the need for memorizing overly complicated passwords.

Instance: In our day-to-day life we use fingerprints than passwords to unlock our mobile phones. This means biometric dramatically reduces the required time of unlocking your mobile phone. Thus, Passwordless authentication gives you a better user experience in your day-to-day life.

Improved security

If you are using vulnerable and same passwords everywhere you go then realize you’re creating a massive trap hole for your security. However, using passwordless authentications improves your security and offers you better protection against other forms of credential access attacks.

Reduces the cost of maintenance (if you’re running a business)

Passwords require expensive management systems and need constant maintenance support from IT staffs to deal with real problems. In this case, this could be solved by using passwordless authentications that are pretty much impossible to forget or leave at home, i.e., your fingerprints, or iris. Compared to passwords, passwordless authentication remains cheaper and helps you to streamline the whole security system saving support agents hours of tedious tasks.

How does passwordless authentication work?

Passwordless authentication is a type of multifactor authentication which replaces passwords with a fingerprint or a pin that remains as secure authentication. It works on the same principles as digital certificates where a cryptographic key pairs with a private and a public key. Think of the private key as the actual key that unlocks the padlock and the public key as the padlock. The padlock has only one key and that key can unlock only one padlock.

Instance: If you want to create a secure account using a tool (a mobile app, browser extension, etc.) to generate a public-private key your private key will be stored on your local device and is tied to an authentication factor such as fingerprint, PIN, iris or voice recognition and your account can be accessed with this gesture. Then your public key (padlock) is provided to the website, application, browser, or other online systems where you want to have your account.

Conclusion

These days passwords have become more susceptible. The main aim of passwordless authentication is to eliminate authentication vulnerabilities and provide indestructible security. If you think about making up your security system more effective then passwordless authentication remains the best security for you. You can follow a simple process and implement passwordless authentication today.

Take away: Once you choose passwordless, your passwords can’t be hacked in anyways.