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IT – Password testing could end in a year: google† Apple and Microsoft announced this Thursday, May 5, an agreement to build a system that allows authentication without having to memorize a series of kabbalistic characters.
“With the new feature, consumers can log in to websites and mobile apps easily, without a password and securely, regardless of device or operating system,” said FIDO Alliance (Fast Identity Online Alliance) in a press release.
Since 2012, it has brought industry players together to work on common authentication systems.
The goal, Google says, is for users to connect to an online service by simply entering their smartphone (via their usual method: fingerprint, facial recognition, multi-digit code…)
In concrete terms, a website can ask the internet user if he wants to “authenticate himself with his FIDO identifiers”. This message appears simultaneously on his phone, where the user only has to accept, by unlocking his screen, to connect to the site.
Smartphones store this coded identification data, the so-called “passkey”.
Prevent account takeovers, data breaches and identity theft
The three tech giants have committed to deploying this new system within 12 months on Android and iOS (the Google and Apple mobile operating systems), Chrome, Edge and Safari (the Google, Microsoft and Apple browsers), as well as Windows and macOS. (Microsoft and Apple operating systems for computers).
“Password-only authentication is one of the biggest security concerns on the web,” Apple notes in its statement.
Because they cannot manage so many different passwords, individuals often use the same password, facilitating account takeovers, data breaches, and identity theft.
“The new approach will protect against phishing and logging into a service will be radically more secure than passwords and other technologies such as unique codes sent by text message,” adds the iPhone maker.
The three US companies made their announcement on the occasion of World Password Day.
Alex Simons, vice president of Microsoft, spoke in the FIDO Alliance press release of a “complete transition to a passwordless world” where “consumers would make a habit of going passwordless every day.”
See also on The HuffPost† From computer to smartphone, in Repair Cafés we repair instead of buy (and pollute)