On this episode of The Vergecast, we figure out passkeys once and for all.

Passkeys: how do they work? No, like, seriously. It’s clear that the industry is increasingly betting on passkeys as a replacement for passwords, a way to use the internet that is both more secure and more user-friendly. But for all that upside, it’s not always clear how we, the normal human users, are supposed to use passkeys. You’re telling me it’s just a thing… that lives on my phone? What if I lose my phone? What if you steal my phone?

  • TheEntity@kbin.social
    81·
    9 months ago

    It certainly feels dangerous if forced upon users not aware of the trade-offs. For people already accustomed to using hardware keys, it’s very much an improvement, as more services will support them too. The problem is in the awareness. On the other hand, people already treat regular passwords as throwaway data and expect services to just let them in, or even never log them out. In this scenario, maybe passkeys can still be an improvement: roughly just as much as enforcing using a password manager.