Prime Highlights :
Microsoft assures password retirement in 8 weeks for all significant consumer accounts.
Passkeys will substitute legacy logins, making the system more secure and user-friendly.
Key Facts :
Microsoft prevents more than 7,000 password-based attacks per second.
Passkeys are as much as three times quicker and much more secure than passwords.
Key Background :
Microsoft has formally announced it will eliminate legacy password-based authentication for its customers, effective in a mere eight weeks. This step is a significant step towards the company’s long-held vision of building a passwordless environment and fighting rising cyberattacks.
Passwords have been a weak link in internet security for years. Easily guessed, reused, and susceptible to phishing, they have been a top target for attackers. Microsoft says its systems block more than 7,000 password attacks every second—well up from 2023—which highlights just how common the threat has become.
To meet this, Microsoft is introducing passkey support, a new standard that the FIDO Alliance created and received approval from companies such as Google and Apple. Passkeys employ biometric information like fingerprints or facial verification stored securely on a user’s device. Unlike passwords, passkeys are not transmitted or stored in cloud servers, thus being immune to typical cyberattacks such as phishing, credential stuffing, or database breaches.
Passkeys can now be created by Microsoft users on any device such as Windows PC or mobile phone for their accounts. Once a passkey is created, users can remove their password altogether. Microsoft is definitely nudging people towards doing this since it plans to completely retire passwords. Even for those who are not willing to remove their password, Microsoft now uses passkey authentication by default and has included safe backup and recovery mechanisms to make it seamless.
This shift marks the start of the end for passwords in Microsoft’s ecosystem. By replacing slow and insecure login practices with quicker and more secure biometric-based equivalents, the company is proactively looking to redefine digital identity security on its platforms.
