Anyone setting up a new Microsoft account will soon find they’re encouraged to use a passkey during the sign-up process.

Microsoft introduced passkey support across most of its consumer apps last year, allowing users to sign into their accounts without the need for 2FA methods or remembering long passwords. A year later, it’s removing passwords as the default and encouraging all new signups to use passkeys.

PCMag attempted to sign up for a new Microsoft account on May 2, but it still asked for a password at the time of publication. Microsoft hasn’t shared an exact timeframe for when the change will take place, but you should expect it to happen in the coming days.

This is the first time a new account can be entirely passwordless. Previously, it had to have one alongside your passkey.

In a blog post, Microsoft says 98% of passkey attempts to log in are successful, while passwords are only at 32%. Microsoft is also introducing what it calls a “streamlined” sign-in experience for all accounts that “prioritizes passwordless methods for sign-in and sign-up.” It means some UX design changes to highlight passkey functionality.


More

Security Intelligence: CISA, NSA Issue New IAM Best Practice Guidelines

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) recently released…

Read More →

TechRadar.pro: Bitwarden now lets you create passkeys for your business apps

Bitwarden – in our view the best free password manager around – has announced Bitwarden Passwordless.dev, a toolkit…

Read More →

Biometric Update: Consumers ready for passwordless technology and prefer biometrics; FIDO Alliance report

FIDO Alliance has published a report examining how the behavior, patterns and adoption of authentication technologies reflect the…

Read More →