Google: 400 million accounts use passwordless login with passkeys – Computer – News

Roughly 400 million Google accounts have used the technology to log in since the introduction of passkeys in May 2022, or just under 17 percent of all Google accounts. According to the tech giant, the password alternative has been used more than a billion times.

In honor of World Password Day this weekend, Google writes that the password alternative is now used more often every day for Google accounts than one-time passwords via SMS and authentication apps. In line with this, the company mentions several major companies that have started supporting passkeys in the past twelve months, including Amazon, 1Password, eBay, WhatsApp and Uber.

Passkeys are a relatively new way to log into accounts. The principle uses public key cryptography; two keys are created, a public key and a private key. The former is shared with the platform the account is for, while the private key is linked to a device. An account login requires that these two unique keys be linked and a malicious hacker therefore does not have enough information if only the public key becomes known, for example in the event of a data breach or cyber attack. By linking the private key to a biometric login, security should be even better. Tweakers wrote a background story about the passkey principle last year.