According to a statistic from Microsoft, more than 150 million users are using passwordless logins on the company's service platforms every month.
This is an impressive growth because at Ignite 2019 conference back in November 2019, Microsoft said that it had 100 million people. What this means, the number of people using password-free logins has increased by a half in the past 6 months.
Microsoft said that the passwordless logins users are doing, are done on its major online service platforms such as Azure, GitHub, Office and Xbox, using Windows Hello (fingerprint and facial recognition), Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) networks, Microsoft Authenticator app and FIDO2-based security keys.
In a blog post celebrating World Password Day, Microsoft explained that:
This can be considered as an early success for Microsoft in promoting and supporting users to use multi-factor authentication solutions (MFA) or passwordless logins to keep their accounts secure.
For ordinary password authentication, many people have a habit of using simple passwords or using the same password for multiple accounts, leading to an increased security breach. With the company cited improvements to its passwordless offerings, which should help users secure their accounts better, easier, but safer.
As previously revealed by Microsoft, MFA authentication solutions have successfully prevented 99.9% of account hijacking (ATO) attacks.
Meanwhile, the MFA bypass attack is so rare, that the company couldn't even record statistics about this hack.
In addition to improving account security, passwordless login solutions often come with some economic benefits, like helping businesses reduce technology support costs for common problems, as employees don't have a password to forget and reset..
With more users using passwordless logins for their accounts, Microsoft also said that internally, its employees are also switching to Microsoft's password-free login system.
"100% of the IT team and 90% of Microsoft employees have switched to login authentication without having to enter a password. As a result, the cost associated with password support has decreased by 87%," said Joy Chik, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Identity.
Yubico CEO Stina Ehrensvärd weighted in, to support Microsoft's passwordless offerings, saying that hardware security key aren't perfect.
Enrolling keys - primary and backup at least - is a tedious process at best for multiple accounts. But the technology is maturing, and it's important to balance the problems of passwordless logon with the problems we already face today, said Stina Ehrensvärd, co-founder and chief executive of Swedish company Yubico.
What's more, these physical keys can also get lost.
"I can lose my phone, too," she said.
