I’m starting to see Passkeys more and more at the moment as an option to login to websites and applications.

What is a Passkey and should I be using one?

A Passkey basically eliminates the need for a password and ensures a “Passwordless” experience when accessing your accounts.  You don’t have to enter a password, you just need to save this Passkey into a Password Manager like 1Password, Apple Keychain or on a physical security key.  The passkey is saved as an encrypted private key that is then used to authenticate with a public key that is stored with the vendor when logging in (This technology is called public key cryptography).  This eliminates someone stealing your password as there is no password to steal.

To enter the stored passkey this is generally tied to authenticating with Face ID a Fingerprint reader or your mobile PIN code to gain access to your key.  You can also pass authentication over to another device by scanning a QR code.  So you could be working on someone else’s PC and use a passkey stored on your iPhone to log in.

At the moment I’ve been implementing Passkey logins on my accounts when this option is available as it’s highly secure and easy to use.  If you are using an all Apple setup without any Windows devices it’s possible to set up your passkeys in Apple Keychain making seamless use of Face ID and Finger Print readers.  If you have a mix of devices then a password manager like 1Password is still a perfect way to store your Passkeys to be used across different devices.

1Password can also be integrated with Touch ID and Face ID and can be set to require biometrics every time on a smart phone or after 1 minute of inactivity on a desktop.

At the moment Passkeys are only available on major vendor platforms, but I can see Passkeys eventually being implemented on all services and replacing passwords in the near future.

This is an example of logging into Zoho with a Passkey stored in Apple Keychain, Finger Print authentication is required and that’s it!