Cybercrime is an enormous problem in today’s world and continues to grow at an exponential rate. In fact, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit $8 trillion in 2023 and will grow to a whopping $10.5 trillion by 2025.
One of the main enablers for the escalation in cybercrime is the over-reliance on passwords. According to the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance, passwords are the root cause of more than 80% of data breaches. This is because passwords can easily be phished, intercepted in transit, and uncovered via a variety of attacks. Further, users are often overburdened with remembering passwords across, on average, 90 different online accounts. It’s no surprise then that 51% of people re-use non-complex passwords across multiple accounts. As a result, weak or re-used passwords are effortlessly accessed by criminals. So, rather than execute complex hacks, threat actors simply log in to accounts to execute cybercrimes. The good news is, there is a better way: passwordless authentication, also known as phishing-resistant Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).