Google LLC today started rolling out support for passkeys to its Workspace productivity suite and Google Cloud.

The feature, which provides a more secure alternative to passwords, will become available in the coming days. It’s rolling out to Workspace and Google Cloud a few weeks after the search giant added passkey support to consumer accounts. According to the company, early data indicates that passkeys are twice as fast and four times less error-prone than traditional passwords.

Adding them is fairly straightforward: you specify the Passkey option as you would to add any other additional authentication factor, and are shown a QR code if you want to store a passkey on a separate device, such as a mobile phone running at least iOSv16 or Android v9, or on a hardware key such as Google’s Titan or from Yubico Inc.  You will also need a relatively recent web browser version such as Chrome/Edge v109 or  Safari v16. Workspace administrators need to turn on the setting “Allow users to skip passwords at sign-in” if they wish.

Passkey technology was developed by an industry consortium called the FIDO Alliance that counts Google, Apple Inc. and other major tech firms among its members. The technology is meant to reduce the risk posed by phishing campaigns. It does so by removing the need for usernames and passwords, creating a situation where there are no login credentials that hackers can steal.

Passkey-based sign-in systems perform authentication by asking users to unlock their handsets’ lock screen. The only way for hackers is to bypass the technology to gain physical access to a user’s device. That’s considerably more difficult than stealing a password, which means the risk of breaches is reduced.

There are already technologies on the market that tie the login process to physical device access. Many services support security keys, compact USB devices that act as physical passwords. Users can only access an account if they possess the corresponding security key.

But while they reduce the risk of breaches, such devices have a major drawback: they complicate the login process. The requirement to buy and use an additional device during sign-ins represents a particularly major adoption barrier in the consumer market. So far, uptake of the technology has been relatively limited outside the enterprise. 

Passkeys, in contrast, don’t complicate the login process but rather simplify it by removing the need to enter a username and password. Moreover, it’s possible to sync passkeys across multiple devices. That streamlines the login experience for users who require the ability to log in from multiple endpoints.

“Passkeys are based on the same public key cryptographic protocols that underpin physical security keys,” detailed Google product manager Jeroen Kemperman and engineering manager Shruti Kulkarni. “In fact, Google research has shown that security keys provide a stronger protection against automated bots, bulk phishing attacks, and targeted attacks than SMS, app-based one-time passwords, and other forms of traditional two-factor authentication.” 

The passkey feature that started rolling out to Workspace and Google Cloud today is currently in public beta. By default, users must continue to enter their passwords and can only leverage passkeys for two-step verification. However, administrators can optionally configure Workspace and Google Cloud to let workers skip entering passwords.

Google detailed that today’s launch will make passcodes available to 9 million organizations worldwide. According to the company, Snap Inc. is among the early adopters that have already started using the feature internally to improve security. 

Image: Google