It appears that many people are ready to embrace the brave new world of passwordless security, as they voice their support for the idea.
The Privileged access management (PAM) firm Delinea conducted a survey at this year's Black Hat USA security conference and found that over half (54%) of respondents believe that passwordless solutions are a viable concept. A fifth were also already using passkeys instead of or in addition to passwords.
What's more, a vast majority (79%) thought that passwords were evolving or on their way out entirely, and many (73%) further secure them with multi-factor authentication (MFA), given their susceptibility to leaking or being cracked.
Securing credentials
In addition to MFA, 52% said that they use a password manager, while 34% said that they use a PAM solution to store their credentials safely. Their concerns for protecting their passwords so closely stem from their well-founded fears, as 75% acknowledged that the fastest way for networks to be breached is via social engineering attacks and stolen credentials.
The threat of data breaches and other cyberattacks has never loomed larger, as the scope and sophistication of such campaigns grows every day. Only 12% of those surveyed thought that organizations were ahead in the fight against cyberthreats from criminals and nation states.
There was also some concern over the threat posed by AI, as Pandora's box seems to have been well and truly opened now. 34%, though, thought it was too early to call how much of a threat it will actually be, whilst 22% thought it had already taken over. Only 11% thought it would never take over.
Many have been signaling the redundancy of passwords as new technologies take hold. Chief among them are passkeys, which are supported by big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Other services that make use of them are quite limited right now, with the most prominent being eBay, PayPal and BestBuy.
However, more services continue to be added - WhatsApp, for instance, recently but unwittingly revealed its future support for the technology with a new beta version of its encrypted messaging app. However, some experts believe it will be a long time before passwords are eliminated wholesale from our lives.
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