Remember this date, because it is the day of the “beginning of the end of the password”. This is how the Google epic announced on its official page, in which it confirmed the launch of the access keys which can now be used to log in. But what are they and how are they used?
What is an access key
Last year, some of the biggest tech companies, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, announced plans to wipe out passwords once and for all. Although they have worked so far, passwords are not adequate for the important security function they serve; especially if we choose passwords that are easy to remember or guess, such as “123456” or our birthday. To this must be added the large number of hacker attacks in recent years that have made millions of passwords public.
The “Passkey”, or access key, is the proposed solution. As the name suggests, this is a key that we can use to log in; the difference is that we don’t have to remember them, but rather they are based on our device’s authentication system. Indeed, this means that instead of using the password, we can use the fingerprint reader of our mobile or the facial recognition of our camera to log in.
To use an access key, just put your finger on the reader of our mobile
Instead of having to type in a complicated password, we can just put our finger on the reader or show our face; and it is not necessary to use a biometric system, we can also enter the PIN code of our mobile. The idea is that unlocking our account is as easy as unlocking our mobile.
In addition, access keys are more difficult to obtain than a simple password, since they are stored with the same security that our mobile uses to encrypt our biometric data; And that also means it’s more resistant to phishing attacks and doesn’t have the security issues of some two-step authentication systems.
There are many advantages that can convince us to use an access key instead of a password, but there is a vital disadvantage: there are not many services supported at the moment. This is why today’s announcement from Google is so important: from today we can use the access key in our Google account, thanks to the fact that Android and Chrome now support supports this technology.
How to Use Access Key in Google
Creating a passkey in Google is very simple; We only have to enter this address, which will take us to the access keys section of our Google account. Here we can create a new key by just pressing the button.
- Set up passkey in Google
How to create an access key in Google
If we enter via mobile, each time we log in, Google will ask us to authenticate ourselves (with fingerprint or PIN). It also works on computers, and we can enter the PIN code to unlock the system or use a webcam for facial recognition.
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