Google Workspace Gets Passkey Authentication – Source: www.securityweek.com

Google on Monday announced that passkeys are now supported for authentication in Google Workspace.

Passkeys are an alternative authentication method to passwords, allowing users to sign in to apps and websites with their fingerprint, with facial recognition, or with their device’s PIN or pattern.

Replacing both the username and password pair and a second-factor authentication (2FA) step, passkeys, which are stored on the user’s device, allow for instant sign-in and are considered more secure compared to passwords, as they cannot be stolen.

Based on an industry standard, the passwordless sign-in method is supported in major browsers and operating systems, including Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS.

Now, Google is making passkey authentication available to all organizations using its collection of cloud computing, collaboration, and productivity solutions known as Google Workspace.

“Starting today, in an open Beta, more than 9 million organizations can allow their users to sign in to Google Workspace and Google Cloud accounts using passkeys instead of passwords,” the internet giant announced.

The capability will become available to all Workspace customers progressively, within the next few weeks, Google says.

By default, users will not be able to skip passwords at sign-in and use a passkey instead, but they can add passkeys as a 2FA step. Workspace administrators, however, can allow users to use only passkeys for authentication.

Google turned on passkey authentication in Google accounts last month, after announcing full support for passkeys in Chrome in December last year. Android users can create passkeys on their devices and sync them using the Google Password Manager.

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