In the digital age, where the security of our online interactions has never been more crucial, a concerning reality persists: our authentication infrastructure still relies heavily on technology that is over sixty years old. Passwords, designed in the 1960s for very different computing environments, now struggle to meet modern security challenges.
Passwords show their limitations every day. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 amounts to $4.88 million USD — a 10% increase from the previous year. Faced with this reality, an alternative is emerging and gaining ground: passkeys. This technology doesn't simply propose to improve passwords; it completely replaces them.
The heavy legacy of passwords
To counter growing threats, passwords have been made more complex: minimum length, uppercase letters, symbols, regular changes. The result? The burden on users has increased without truly improving security. Many end up reusing them, writing them down somewhere, or depending entirely on a password manager.
The flaws are numerous: choice of weak passwords, massive reuse, poorly protected server-side storage, interfaces vulnerable to phishing. Not to mention that malicious actors automate their attacks and systematically exploit these human and technical weaknesses.
Passkeys: a paradigm shift
Passkeys mark a fundamental break from the shared secret model. Based on asymmetric cryptography, they use a key pair: the public key is stored on the server, while the private key remains secure on the user's device.
In concrete terms, authentication works through cryptographic signatures. During login, the server sends a random challenge that the user signs with their private key. The server then verifies this signature with the public key. No secret information is ever transmitted or stored server-side.
