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Passwords vs. Passkeys: Which is safer?

Each year, there are over 111 million hackings in the U.S. Every 39 seconds, someone is a victim of a cyberattack. It is believed that passwords have become weaker security since hackers have become more advanced.

At the end of 2022, Google and Apple decided to update their phone and web browsers to use passkey technology to see if this could prevent more cyberattacks.

Now, passkeys might be our best bet for privacy. But do you know the difference between passwords and passkeys?

“A passkey is a software token that’s on your device. So, you still have something you have to have, which is your phone, and it’s enabled with biometrics, like touch ID or face ID,” said David Zambri, Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Central Florida.

To see a demo of how passkeys work, go to webauthn.io, type in a fake username, press “register,” then “continue” to save the passkey. Then, to actually use the passkey you just created, press “authenticate” and “continue.” Then, it will scan your fingerprint or face, and you’re done!

Zambri said that passkeys are better for protection, but it’s not available everywhere yet. So, for the time being …

“What I would recommend is a good username and password, and when I say, ‘a good password,’ it should be a long password and it should be generated by a password generator,” Zambri said.

Zambri also said that until passkeys are on all platforms, you can safely secure your log-in information to your accounts in an encrypted document on your device.


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