Microsoft Enforces Passwordless Logins on All New Accounts

According to a recent Microsoft blog post, the company is pushing passkeys as the authentication method for all new users.

This push for passwordless logins is an effort to address the evolution of the digital world, which is more dangerous than ever. The blog post reads:

Microsoft started the shift to passkeys last year with overwhelming positive feedback from the community. At the time, the company rolled out passwordless logins for services like Xbox, and now the company reports more than a million passkey registrations per day.

The change is not only available for new users, as older Microsoft users can also change their account authentication from a password to a passkey. The company recommends doing this to:

The use of passkeys is spreading across the digital world, but many services still rely on traditional passwords. With that in mind, password managers are the best option to securely manage all your accounts’ passwords without the need to remember them. They include encrypted storage, credential auditing, password generators for creating more complex and hard-to-brute-force passwords, and additional features like dark web monitoring and autofill.