Since the launch of passkeys by Google, the secure login method has been very successful. Google reports that passkeys have been used to log into Google accounts more than one billion times.
Google has more than one billion login actions with passkeys spread across 400 million Google accounts. Since the introduction of the passkey for Google accounts in 2022, the secure login technique has become increasingly popular.
Google only has figures for passkey-related logins to its own accounts, but since 2022 you can also log in to other accounts with a passkey. Apple, for example, was very quick to integrate the technology. Microsoft, for its part, has offered support for passkeys in Windows 11 since last year, but only made its own accounts compatible last week. In any case, the actual global use of the system is higher than what Google can measure.
Safe against phishing
A passkey works with a duo of cryptographic keys. One key lives on the service you want to log in to, such as the Google account in this case. The other key is yours and is linked to your device. The key is located on the device behind an extra authentication layer such as Windows Hello, a PIN code or a fingerprint scan.
You prove that you are who you are because you have your physical device with a key and you can authenticate on it, but the login page is also guaranteed to be the correct one since it holds the other half of the key. A phishing website may look great, but without the right key, a criminal won’t be able to make passkey authentication work.
Passkeys also have disadvantages. The main disadvantage is the connection to a device. One device has one passkey. If your laptop is stolen and you buy a new one, you will not be able to log in with a passkey.
