Gradually, but gradually it seems The access key is gaining traction, and for good reasonbecause it seems that we are finally faced with an authentication method that will represent a more than substantial improvement with respect to passwords, which played a key role in the past, but for many reasons (from brute force attacks and data leaks to extremely insecure key selection), stopped providing the required level of security some time ago.

Unfortunately, Passkey does not completely protect us from threats, as leaks like the one suffered by Air Europa last week are not limited to the authentication system used by the user, but to the information held in the affected infrastructure. However, if we’re talking about leaks that get usernames and passcode, using a passkey makes a whole lot of difference because The attacker will no longer be able to log in using the accounts compromised in said attack.

Where they also introduce before and after, as I’ve already indicated, is the lack of care that many users even today take when setting their passwords. It seems like a lie, but at this point It is still quite common to use keys as insecure as “1234”, “qwerty” or just slightly above the security of a password easily deduced by anyone who knows us (first and last name combinations, our cat’s name, etc.).

So if we told you last week that Google has already started using this system by default, today we know it WhatsApp has already started deploying Passkey in its Android app. Rapier was communicated by the company itself, confirms some rumors that in recent weeks suggested that Meta was already conducting tests in this regard, specifically in the beta version of Android. At the moment, there is no information about its arrival on iOS, Windows and the web version of the service.

As you already know when you start using passkey when an app or web service needs you to identify yourself securely instead of asking for a username and password allows you to use the device, which you will have previously configured, for secure login using biometric identification or using a PIN. This combines the use of a secure device with a secure identification system, something exceptionally more secure than a username and password combination.

Many major tech companies have already confirmed support for this new security system, so it’s very likely that it will eventually replace passwords. However, we are talking about a change with a certain complexity that faces certain problems, so this replacement will not happen in the short term, a period in which we will see its adoption grow.