In an era where digital security is paramount, the persistent reliance on passwords remains a significant vulnerability for enterprises globally. FIDO 2.0 emerges as a timely solution, reimagining credential authorization using available technologies.

Source :
By Josh Blackwelder, Deputy CISO at SentinelOne

https://www.koreaittimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=129140​

​by Kate O'Flasherty published 2024 Feb 02 

What will the end of passwords look like in practice and what can businesses do to prepare?

It’s widely accepted that passwords are a flawed means of security. People use weak credentials; they can be forgotten, guessed, or exposed in breaches and they’re often reused across services. 

Big tech firms including Microsoft, Apple and Google have been moving towards a passwordless future for several years, with solutions such as security keys and more recently, passkeys, starting to take off as part of multi-factor authentication (MFA) setups. 

The FIDO Alliance – which most big tech players are members of – is pushing hard for the demise of the password. But what exactly does “the end of the password” mean, in practical terms?

The idea is to eliminate dependence on passwords as a “primary mechanism for user authentication”, says Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO at the FIDO Alliance. In practical terms, this means the end of using knowledge-based “secrets” as the foundation to create, sign in, and recover online accounts, he says. 

“Passwords simply aren’t fit for purpose to protect today’s connected economy. They are too burdensome for humans to manage effectively and too easy for attackers to leverage to hack into corporate networks.”

The end of passwords: Strong alternatives

There are multiple systems that could help usher in the end of passwords, but no one solution is perfect. For example, biometrics can be secure but come with their own downsides, says Michael Jenkins, CTO at ThreatLocker. “Windows uses facial recognition, which can unlock too quickly, so you might walk away and leave your laptop exposed while it’s still unlocked.”

Fingerprint systems are a lot harder to get around, he says. “But the downside is, it may ask for your PIN number instead. These are a lot easier to guess.”

Passkeys, meanwhile, are “a great idea”, but they still need to be implemented across every website and application, says Darren James, a senior product manager at Specops Software. In addition, they can’t be used for initial login to a device and they aren’t very portable unless you store them on a token – which can be lost, broken, or stolen.

Handling passkeys is very different from passwords, says Mark Stockley, senior threat researcher at Malwarebytes. “Both users and support staff are likely to be less familiar with them, which is a speed bump to adoption.”

Yet Shikiar argues that implementing passkeys for MFA is fairly simple and won’t require most businesses to completely overall their pre-existing security processes. This is because the core functionality is built into the majority of end-user computing devices, enterprise software stacks, and identity management services, he says.

“Many organizations are already using identity management solutions such as Microsoft Entra ID, which already has support for these solutions built-in,” concurs Mark Lomas, technical architect at Probrand. 

However, the end of passwords will be easier in some sectors and businesses than in others. It is important to recognize that certain sectors could be forced to continue to use passwords, says Stewart Parkin, global CTO at Assured Data Protection. “Organizations with legacy systems may be challenged in integrating new technologies, while regulatory requirements in certain industries can create the need to continue password-based authentication.”

Software not tied to modern authentication solutions won't be able to take advantage of modern passwordless solutions, or be linked to Entra ID, says Lomas. “It's typically legacy software that will be unable to make the switch. In this case, you'll need to find other routes to add protection, such as hosting the application in a virtual desktop environment like Azure Virtual Desktop and ensuring that access is protected by a passwordless login solution.”

The end of passwords: A future-proof successor

While there are multiple alternatives to passwords, passkeys are the only successor that “has the same availability and ubiquity”, says Shikiar. Therefore, they are the only currently available means to fully replace passwords, he says.

“Passkeys are built on open standards created within the FIDO Alliance and based on tried and tested cryptographic protocols,” says Shikiar. In addition, the technology is supported by all big tech and is device and operating system-agnostic, he says.

Passkeys are “far and away the best password alternative for online authentication”, agrees Stockley. “They are secure, easy to use and the cost of implementation is likely to get lower as they become more widely supported.”

But it’s important to realize that as we approach the end of passwords, replacements will have to compete with passwords which are themselves universally understood and very cheap to implement. “That's really hard,” says Stockley. “They're an authentication standard that dates from an era when managing low computing resources was the priority. Users understand them, support teams know how to support them and developers know how to implement them.”

Taking this into account, while some organizations may eventually go passwordless altogether, for now, many are supplementing passwords with MFA, says Steven Furnell, IEEE senior member and professor of cyber security at the University of Nottingham.

In the future, he predicts a mixed authentication setup will be the main choice for many businesses. “Some systems and services could use traditional passwords, some MFA, and some passwordless.”

Shikiar says there is “no need for any company to hang onto passwords”, but he does concede they will need to be “phased out over time”.  Initially, companies may keep them to help with account recovery until other possession-based factors are established, says Shikiar. If you do decide to make further moves away from passwords, the transition will depend on the organization, says Shikiar. “Many will have disparate legacy systems to grapple with, while for others it is more straightforward.”

When taking the plunge, Shikiar recommends a prioritization exercise. “Discover those systems that can migrate most easily and are most urgently in need of higher security.”

Transitioning from a password-centric security model requires a systematic approach, says Parkin. Organizations should begin with a comprehensive assessment for risk management, followed by pilot implementations in less critical areas, he says. “The integration of multi-factor authentication as an interim step can pave the way for a more seamless transition.”

Businesses can also take a “privileged user” approach by identifying employees with access to sensitive applications, and examining who is the most vulnerable to attacks, says Shikiar. “Migrate these users to phishing-resistant authentication as soon as possible and from there, you can start to work your way across the wider employee base.” 

Panelists at a recent policy forum said passkeys with detection-enabled biometrics make for a more secure online future, but accessibility and digital equity concerns must be addressed.

With data breaches that compromise personal info soaring — 2023 was a record year in the U.S., one report found — new methods of verifying identities are almost certainly on their way.

Increased desire for biometrics and awareness of passkeys increases imperative on service providers to enable stronger, more user-friendly sign-ins

• Password usage without two-factor authentication (2FA) is still dominant across use cases – consumers enter a password manually nearly 4 times a day, or 1,280 times a year

• But when given the option, users want other authentication methods – biometrics is both the preferred method for consumers to log-in and what they believe is most secure, while awareness of passkeys continues to grow

• Online scams are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated, likely fuelled by AI – over half (54%) have seen an increase in suspicious messages and scams, while 52% believe they have become more sophisticated

• The impact of legacy sign-in methods is getting worse – the majority of people are abandoning purchases and giving up accessing services online – this is 15% more likely than last year at nearly four times per month per person

The FIDO Alliance today publishes its third annual Online Authentication Barometer, which gathers insights into the state of online authentication in ten countries across the globe. New to the Barometer this year, FIDO Alliance has also begun tracking consumer perception of threats and scams online in a bid to understand anticipated threat levels globally.

The 2023 Online Authentication Barometer found that despite widespread usage of passwords lingering on, consumers want to use stronger, more user-friendly alternatives. Entering a password manually without any form of additional authentication was the most commonly used authentication method across the use cases tracked – including accessing work computers and accounts (37%), streaming services (25%), social media (26%), and smart home devices (17%). Consumers enter a password manually nearly four times a day on average, or around 1,280 times a year. The only exceptional scenario to this trend was financial services, where biometrics (33%) narrowly beat passwords (31%)* as the most used sign-in method.

This is especially interesting considering biometrics’ rising popularity as an authentication method. When asked what authentication method people consider most secure and the method they most prefer using, biometrics ranked as favourite in both categories, rising around 5% in popularity since last year. This suggests that consumers want to use biometrics more but don’t currently have the opportunity.

“This year’s Barometer data showed promising signs of shifting consumer attitudes and desire to use stronger authentication methods, with biometrics especially proving popular. That said, high password usage without 2FA worryingly reflects how little consumers are still being offered alternatives like biometrics, resulting in lingering usage,” commented Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance. 

Marketing Technology News: Aidentified Launches Data Insights Scan (DIScover), a Snowflake Native App in the Data Cloud

Scams are getting more frequent and more sophisticated – likely fuelled by AI 

This year’s Barometer also unearthed consumer perception of threats and scams online. 54% of people have noticed an increase in suspicious messages and scams online, while 52% believe these have become more sophisticated.

Threats are seen to be active across several channels, but primarily email, SMS messages, social media, and fake phone or voicemails. The increased accessibility of generative AI tools is a likely driver of this rise in scams and phishing threats. Tools like FraudGPT and WormGPT, which have been created and shared on the dark web explicitly for use in cybercrime, have made crafting compelling social engineering attacks far simpler, more sophisticated, and easier to do at scale. Deepfake voice and video are also being used to bolster social engineering attacks, tricking people into thinking they are talking to a known trusted person.

Shikiar added: “Phishing is still by far the most used and effective cyberattack technique, which means passwords are vulnerable regardless of their complexity. With highly accessible generative AI tools now offering bad actors the means to make more convincing and scalable attacks, it’s imperative consumers and service providers listen to consumers and start to look at non-phishable and frictionless solutions like passkeys and on-device biometrics more readily available, rather than iterating on ultimately flawed legacy authentication like passwords and OTPs.” 

Passkeys, which provide secure and convenient passwordless sign-ins to online services, have grown in consumer awareness despite still being live just over a year, rising from 39% in 2022 to 52% awareness today. The non-phishable authentication method has been publicly backed by many big players in the industry – Google recently announced that passkeys are now available for all its users to move away from passwords and two-step verification, as has Apple, with other brands like PayPal also making these available to consumers in the last twelve months.

The impact of legacy sign-ins worsens for businesses and consumers 

The negative impact caused by legacy user authentication was also revealed to be getting worse. 59% of people have given up accessing an online service and 43% have abandoned a purchase in the last 60 days, with the frequency of these instances rising year on year to nearly four times per month, per person, up by around 15% on last year. Poor online experiences are ultimately hitting businesses’ bottom lines and causing frustration among consumers.

70% of people have had to reset and recover passwords in the last two months because they’d forgotten them, further highlighting how inconvenient passwords are and their role as a primary barrier to a seamless online user experience. 

Original Article