As part of World Password Day (yes, that’s a thing), Google promotes its security achievements and shares updates on its latest efforts. For the first time, the company has released passkey adoption metrics, saying they’ve been used more than a billion times by 400 million Google accounts. “Since their introduction, passkeys have proven to be faster than passwords because they require users to simply unlock their devices using a fingerprint, face scan, or pin to log in,” Google wrote.
The company launched broad support for switch keys in 2022 and made them available across all of its services a year ago. Over the past 12 months, the technology has been adopted by Amazon, 1Password, Dashlane, Docusign and others, joining the likes of eBay, PayPal and WhatsApp. Google boasts that the technology helps Kayak users log in 50 percent faster, and Dashlane says it’s seen a 70 percent increase in conversions with its toggles.
As part of this, Google will soon expand the switch keys for users who are at high risk of being exposed to targeted attacks Advanced Protection Program (APP). According to the company, the offer is aimed at individuals including campaign workers and candidates, journalists, human rights workers and others.
“APP registration traditionally required the use of hardware security keys as a second factor, but users will soon be able to register with any passkey in addition to using hardware security keys,” Google wrote. “This extended key support will help reduce the barrier to access to the APP while still providing phishing-resistant authentication… [and] It comes in a critical election year.”
It also extends Cross-Account Protection to protect users across multiple platforms. This system allows Google to share security notifications about a suspicious event with non-Google apps and services. “This is a critical benefit because cybercriminals often use the initial entry point as a leverage to gain access to more of your information.”
Google offers generate a passkey for your account to benefit from the new protections. Meanwhile, using long passwords with a mix of characters, numbers, and symbols, using two-factor authentication (2FA), never recycling passwords, and more. practice good password hygiene with According to HIPAAattackers can crack a simple 8-digit password in just 37 seconds, but it takes 19 quadrillion years to crack an 18-digit password with a mix of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and symbols.
