Microsoft Allows You To Go Passwordless For Their Accounts

Anyone with a Microsoft account can now remove their password from the account entirely to enable better security:

For the past couple of years we’ve been saying that the future is passwordless, and today I am excited to announce the next step in that vision,” Microsoft corporate vice president Vasu Jakkal writes in the announcement post. “Beginning today, you can now completely remove the password from your Microsoft account.” As for the “why” of this change, Microsoft points to the fact that passwords are insecure and are the focus of over 18 billion attacks every year, or 579 attacks every second. Before you can go passwordless, you’ll need the Microsoft Authenticator app on your smartphone. Then, you can use Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code that’s sent to an email address, your phone, or a compatible app or service like Outlook, OneDrive, Microsoft Family Safety, and more to sign-in, depending on the location.

This is huge and I applaud Microsoft for making this move as this will encourage other companies like Apple and others to make the same move. I’ll be experimenting with this and I will post a story on what my experiences are with living in a passwordless world.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from The IT Nerd

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading