Passkey support means you won’t have to remember a single password
Most of us have turned to some of the best password managers to protect our online accounts by using strong passwords generated by these services. Apps like Dashlane or Google’s Password Manager do a great job of randomizing and remembering dozens of passwords, all protected by a single password. But that single password can be a weak point for bad actors attempting to gain access to your accounts. Hence, several tech giants have been promoting the idea that you will not need to keep entering in your password someday using passkeys, with Google, Microsoft, and PayPal among those pushing the charge. The latest to join them is password manager 1Password.
The company plans to start supporting passkeys this summer, allowing you to create or log in to an account without using a so-called master password. The shift marks a march toward the end of an era for password-protected vaults of credentials and the start of a new authentication technology designed to be more secure than passwords.
1Password’s shift to passkey-supported login comes a few months after acquiring ID authentication startup Passage last November, which was viewed as laying the groundwork for a password-less future for the company’s customers, as per Axios. A few days later, the service revealed its plan to roll out passkey support for logging in to apps and websites in early 2023.
Support for entirely passwordless authentication may seem strange for a service originally created to protect passwords, but 1Password isn’t alone in this endeavor with Dashlane already incorporating passkeys into its service last year. Google also recently released the Credential Manager API, which is intended to make it easier for app developers to provide a simple sign-in experience in their apps by supporting multiple login methods such as passwords and passkeys.
Passkeys work by providing unique digital keys stored locally on your device. This means that all you need to use this type of authentication is to have your phone or PC on and a biometric verification step like a fingerprint or face ID scan. This security method is considered to be more secure than passwords in that it prevents phishing attempts since malicious actors wouldn’t have the crucial site-stored counterpart to those device-stored keys.
Even though 1Password already supports biometric authentication, the company emphasizes that this step only masks passwords rather than completely replacing them.
1Password’s chief product officer, Steve Won, said in a statement that replacing “some of your passwords” won’t be enough to advance passkeys and that what’s really needed is to replace all of your passwords — including the ones you use to sign in to password managers like 1Password.
