Microsoft and Yubico are working together to bring about a most sophisticated security system that will not need any password. If this joint venture of both the companies towards a more futuristic goal turns out well, it could then be marked as the end of password usage.
Yubico is more popularly known for its Yubikey USB authentication dongles. The company recently announced the launch of its unique product called Security Key available at $20 which will provide support for FIDO2/WebAuthn Standard. The company is supposed to make FIDO2 work at a futuristic level and perhaps, it will be the precursor of password-less logins!
Today, the company announced that its upcoming product will get complete support from Microsoft and they will work in partnership for producing Yubico Security Key for Windows 10 as well as for Azure Active Directory users.
Currently, this all new feature is available as a limited preview version and only Windows Technology Adoption Program users have access to it. However, it will roll out a more inclusive support for FIDO2 offering passwordless logins for Windows 10 update. Interestingly, it is tough to predict when exactly Windows 10 will get its next update! So, the moment when the world gets to know about it, it will also get to sign into an Azure Active Directory based device that will not need any password anymore.
Stina Ehrensvärd, the CEO and founder of Yubico mentioned in the company’s public announcement of the upcoming product, “Microsoft’s FIDO2 implementation using the Security Key by Yubico is just the beginning of a passwordless world; there are no limits as to where this technology can take us. Passwords have been an age-old pain point for both individuals and organizations, and now, we have developed a unified open standard that can finally solve the problem at scale.”
As of now, the upcoming feature will fully focus on being useful for the enterprise users. Interestingly, Microsoft Windows 10 already works without the need of a password. If you have ever used Windows Hello, you’d know that is already works without the need of any password at all as it already uses face recognition system based on iris scanner or through fingerprint reader for Windows machine for logging in and out.
Before Yubico formally announced its venture in partnership with Microsoft, it also brought about a special developer program for the companies that would like to use FIDO support system and other protocols such as U2F supported by its keys.
