Passwords are on their way out. You’ve been there, you know the challenge…So many passwords you end up writing them down somewhere – security risk. Or you forgot them and need to spend hours resetting through the helpdesk. There’s got to be a better way!
Simple authentication methods that require only username and password combinations are inherently vulnerable. Attackers can guess or steal credentials and gain access to sensitive information and IT systems.
Passwordless Authentication is an authentication method that allows a user to gain access to an application or IT system without entering a password or answering security questions. Instead, the user provides some other form of evidence such as a fingerprint, software token, or hardware token code. Passwordless Authentication is often used in conjunction with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Single Sign-On solutions to improve the user experience, strengthen security, and reduce IT operations expense and complexity.
One benefit of passwordless authentication is the ability to sign-on through mobile devices. Utilizing facial recognition, fingerprint analysis, SMS OTP, or soft tokens in their mobile devices, a user can seamlessly login to their desktop or their applications without passwords. This improves user-experience considerably.
But what is the difference between passwordless authentication and adaptive authentication? Adaptive authentication can be passwordless, but passwordless authentication might not be part of an adaptive authentication protocol.
It simply improves security and user experience by utilizing things like biometrics, OTPs, and soft and hard tokens, instead of passwords. This is not as secure as adaptive authentication but does offer similar benefits.
- Improve user-experience – by eliminating password fatigue and providing unified access to all applications and services.
- Strengthen security – by eliminating risky password management techniques and reducing credential theft and impersonation.
- Simplify IT operations – by eliminating the need to issue, secure, rotate, reset, and manage passwords.
Passwordless authentication in tandem with things like Adaptive Authentication and Multifactor Authentication is the future and its really needed. Without it were all stuck in password hell and the reduced productivity and frustrating user-experience is just not worth it.