1Password will soon future-proof your passwords

1Password will soon future-proof your passwords

1Password plans to support Passkeys, the latest and greatest biometric login standard, from "early 2023," as part of a move to wrest Apple's current perceived dominance of the technology. .

That's according to Steve Won, a product manager for the password management company. In an informational video posted (opens in a new tab) on the company's website, it was explained that access keys created on Apple devices are essentially trapped in the Apple ecosystem and are particularly difficult to authenticate on devices that they cannot access them, such as televisions.

To that end, the company says that 1Password will become the world's first mobile authenticator for security keys, while continuing to support and store old passwords that users will likely still need until security keys become the norm.

What is a master key?

While 1Password wants users to have full control over their passwords and provide access to a large number of devices, such as Android phones, the technology is state-of-the-art but has yet to penetrate the public consciousness and is not yet supported. from most online services. . However, as with any technology, this will change over time.

Essentially, access keys do away with the notion of a password, which raises a number of security concerns. Security keys are sets of cryptographic keys, authenticated by biometric data such as fingerprints or facial recognition.

Passwords, while they can be stored and accessed from any device, leave a lot to be desired in terms of usability and security. Long, complex strings of letters and numbers are secure, but hard to remember, leading many less sophisticated users to rely on a simple password for every service that requires login.

The implications of this are dire: a compromised service could put a staggering amount of a user's sensitive information at risk.

1Password's plan to make passcodes an open ecosystem is a great start to raising awareness of the technology and encouraging online services to support it first and gradually make it the only authentication option available.

The 1Password reveal came on the heels of Google's own (opens in a new tab) announcement in October that support for passwords in Android and Google Chrome had entered beta. Two companies working towards the same goal of an open ecosystem for Passkeys make it seem like they are about to become a reality.

So it should only be a matter of time before access keys are supported by even more password managers and online services, and become a fact of life online.