This month, the Government Digital Service (GDS) made it faster, easier and more secure to sign into government services.
23 million people are already using GOV.UK One Login to sign in to over 250 UK government services. Now those users can use a passkey to sign in. This will be the same familiar way they unlock their device, for example with their face, fingerprint or passcode. Users will no longer need to remember a password or enter a security code (also known as ‘multi-factor authentication’) to sign in.
Passkeys are recommended by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for use wherever possible. They are more secure than passwords and less vulnerable to phishing and other cybersecurity attacks.
In the first month since we rolled out passkeys for GOV.UK One Login, we have already seen 300,000 (almost 10%) of our users are using them. In the years to come, we expect passkeys to save millions a year for the UK taxpayer by cutting the cost of text message-based authentication.
Introducing passkeys is just one of the ways we are making sure that digital public services are simple, trusted, secure and effective.
This is the biggest change we have made to the sign-in experience of GOV.UK One Login since it launched in 2021.
