Microsoft, Apple, Google, and even the LastPass password manager are gradually getting rid of passwords. Find out what this is all about and what users can expect right now.
The work of password managers is not so complicated: almost everyone struggles with too many user accounts and attached passwords, and a password manager is a safe memory and mobilization assistant.
But what do you think of it when you take care of a world without passwords with the well-known password manager LastPass?
Now it must be said that the idea of deleting passwords is not really new. But everyone can probably report from everyday life that passwords are used everywhere. What LastPass currently has in it is to unlock the password manager without entering a master password. Instead, the LastPass Authenticator app is used.
Not really without a password
First, unlocking a password manager without entering a password isn’t really new, and second, it doesn’t completely cancel passwords. It’s standard on mobile phones: most password managers accept fingerprint unlocking or facial recognition after setup.
The same goes for many clients who use Windows Hello under Windows, for example. The free version of Bitwarden, for example, can use Windows Hello. After that you no longer have to type the master password, face or fingerprint recognition is enough, then the secure password is unlocked.
Once you open it, you can access and use your saved passwords automatically in many cases. So you don’t have to write or copy anything anymore.
This saves you having to deal with passwords, but passwords aren’t scraped as a result – you as a user don’t have any control over that. If providers insist on a password, you can only log in with a password.
Apple, Google and Microsoft want to cancel passwords
What could lead to a truly password-free future are the current aspirations of tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft. They want to support recordings using the FIDO2 standard. Apple offers support for passkeys in iOS 16, for example.
In order for users to worry about as little as possible and the login data is available across devices, it needs to be synced across the provider’s clouds.
Users who are sensitive to data protection should have a headache here, especially because end-to-end encryption is not mandatory.
Sign in to Windows without a password
Anyone can experience what a passwordless login looks like in practice when logging into Windows. However, this requires you to sign in with a Microsoft account. In addition, Microsoft Authenticator is needed on the smartphone.
In the Microsoft account settings, click the “Security” area. There you will find the “Account without password” option. Click Activate there. For this to work, you must first connect the authenticator app to the account.
Then login to Windows via smartphone works. The authentication app sends an instant notification that you allow with a tap of your finger.
