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Microsoft: 68 percent of users who sign in with passwords fail

Did you ever try to sign in to an online account or a device and it simply would not work? Sometimes, it may be just a mistyped character that is responsible for the error message. At other times, you may need to reset the password to regain access to your account.

Cyber criminals may have a better chance at signing in to some accounts than users, especially if the top 200 common passwords are used.

Microsoft revealed today that 68 percent of all password sign ins fail. In other words, only 32 percent of all Microsoft users manage to sign in when they are prompted to do so when they use passwords.

Part of the reason, according to Microsoft, is that users have to enter complex characters or one-time codes to sign in with passwords.

Passkeys offer a much better success chance, says Microsoft. Users who sign in with passkeys manage to do so successfully 98 percent of the time. The number of accounts with passkeys is rising by about 1 million passkeys per day.

Microsoft revealed the information in an article that it published on its Security blog. In "Pushing passkeys forward: Microsoft’s latest updates for simpler, safer sign-ins", Microsoft highlighted plans to get more of its users to use passkeys for sign ins.

Here are the three main changes:

  • New Microsoft accounts are "passwordless by default". Microsoft says that new users have multiple options for securely signing into their accounts without passwords.
  • Changes in preferred sign-in options. Microsoft plans to display the "best available method" to sign in to users. Users may also get a prompt to enroll a passkey and this will be the preferred option afterwards.
  • New visual sign in experience that prioritizes passwordless methods of signing in and signing up.

Microsoft users may create a passkey on this Microsoft website. Please note that Microsoft has not yet enabled passkeys support for signing into Windows.

Passkeys issues

While passkeys promise better security, especially against password-based attacks, they suffer from a variety of issues currently. Here is a list of some of the major ones:

  • Limited compatibility, not every site or application supports passkeys.
  • Cross-platform use is often complicated due to vendor lock-in.
  • Account recovery is often not straightforward, and may rely on traditional recovery means, e.g., via email.
  • Syncing between a user's devices is not always supported, or complicated.

Now You: what is your take on passkeys? Do you use them already to secure some accounts or apps? Or do you prefer not to? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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