In honor of World Password Day (yes, it exists), Google is promoting its security accomplishments and providing updates on its most recent initiatives. For the first time, the firm released adoption figures for passkeys, stating that 400 million Google accounts had used them over one billion times. “Since launching, passkeys have proven to be faster than passwords, since they only require users to simply unlock their device using a fingerprint, face scan or pin to log in,” Google stated.
Passkeys were first widely supported by the corporation in 2022, and a year ago, they were rolled out across all of its services. In the last year, businesses like eBay, PayPal, and WhatsApp have joined Amazon, 1Password, Dashlane, Docusign, and other corporations that have embraced the technology. Google said that Dashlane has witnessed a 70% boost in conversion using passkeys, and that the technology helped Kayak users sign in 50% faster.
As part of its Advanced Protection Program (APP), Google will soon be extending passkeys to users who are most vulnerable to targeted assaults. As per the firm, this product is targeted towards persons such as human rights workers, journalists, campaign workers, and candidates.
“APP enrollment traditionally required the use of hardware security keys as a second factor, but users will soon have the option to enroll with any passkey in addition to using their hardware security keys,” Google wrote. “This expanded passkey support will help reduce the barrier of entry to APP while still providing phishing resistant authentication… [and] is coming during a critical election year.”
It’s also expanding Cross-Account Protection to safeguard users on multiple platforms. That system lets Google share security notifications about suspicious event with non-Google apps and services. “This is a critical benefit since cybercriminals often use an initial entry point as a foothold to gain access to more of your information.”
Google suggests creating a passkey for your account to benefit from the new protections. In the meantime, practice good password hygiene by using long passwords with a mix of characters, numbers and symbols, applying two-factor authentication (2FA), never recycling passwords and more. According to HIPAA, attackers can crack a simple 8-number password in just 37 seconds, but it takes 19 quadrillion years to break an 18-digit cypher with a mix of numbers, upper and lowercase letters and symbols.
