Technology
The end of passwords is close, with a 'password-less' future on the horizon.
Passwords are clearly becoming obsolete in today's world, and businesses are gradually transitioning to a new age in which identification and security are feasible without the use of numerous passwords of eight or more characters.
The rationale for this delayed transition is that having several passwords on many platforms is not just inconvenient but also wrong. Bill Gates himself brought out the disadvantages of employing passwords to safeguard sensitive data in 2004. Furthermore, according to a 2019 Google research, the majority of individuals have a ridiculous password that hackers can simply guess.
This includes reusing passwords on several social media sites simply by altering a single character whenever that platform required the user to update their password because the ordinary person cannot handle too many distinct passwords.
Since a result, passwords are a very insecure means of protecting our data, as chances are that our own passwords are not saved on the servers in a secure manner, which is why we read headlines on the news about 'passwords and emails of millions exposed.'
Major technology companies, on the other hand, have been working on innovative ways to protect data and remove the use of passwords. A Microsoft account is one of the most prominent instances, as users may go into their account settings and convert to a passwordless account, in which the account owner would now require an authenticator app to properly log in to their account. In a nutshell, when you open your authenticator app, you see a code that you input to log in to your account rather of remembering a password. Alternatively, you will get a verification number through SMS or email to assist you in logging into your account.
On the plus side, users are not required to use passwords; but, if you lose your phone, you will typically lose access to all of your accounts. Companies are going toward biometric verification, which scans your face or fingerprint to allow you to access your data.
Still, there are numerous flaws in existing approaches, which is why big tech companies like Google and Microsoft are planning to provide new ways of verification in the near future. This may appear to be a positive thing for the tech behemoths, but for smaller tech firms, this might be a problem since such firms utilize a variety of services that do not play well with the tech behemoths of Silicon Valley.
As a result, corporations are developing a new system known as 'federated login,' which allows customers to sign in to all services using a single verification method.
Overall, the future of passwordless systems is still rife with gaps, so passwords aren't going away anytime soon. So you may still have to use your old 'abc1234' password, but if your password is readily cracked, it is advised that you use phrases as passwords rather than popular names and objects with random numbers.
