World Password Day was created almost 20 years ago to get people to pause and practice good password hygiene. Things like, “Change an old password to a long, strong one” and, “Turn on two-factor authentication for important accounts.”
Today, our partners at Microsoft and others are promoting #WorldPasswordlessDay. This is part of a global movement to practice good security hygiene by forgetting our passwords for good.
Passwords are bad for security, but we have normalized them. This is a widely understood truth, and since other blog posts today will provide compelling evidence from every Verizon Data Breach Report back to 2008, we will move on to the heart of the issue.
First, we have not eradicated passwords even though the technology to do so has existed for decades because, like many other “security” programs, strong authentication methods often reduce risk by making people do more. Multiply this by the average person’s 150 different accounts and suddenly the problem becomes much more difficult to solve.
Let’s go back to the drawing board and remind ourselves of the root issue—why do we need authentication, anyway? Of course, it is to ensure to the network that you are actually you, but why do we do that? Fundamentally, we need a way for people to interact with digital systems in a manner that is very secure, yet very simple.
At the intersection of high security and user convenience unfolds a tricky axis to navigate. One thing is certain, we cannot find a better way by thinking better; we need a paradigm shift to think differently. How would we imagine our ideal solution if we didn’t have the history of passwords to bias our thinking?
At Nymi, we assessed the best technology innovations (biometrics, cryptography, BLE/NFC) and combined them into a fundamentally new enterprise solution that balances the critical need for strong security, with its equally critical counterpart, a frictionless user experience. We arrived at a passwordless world where we can authenticate once to a wrist-worn device, and let it take on the burden of ensuring secure and private connections to all our networks for us. With its intuitive UX, the Nymi Band allows us to move seamlessly throughout our workday without a single password: safe, secure, and simple. This is the life of a connected worker.
Access to Microsoft Azure Active Directory on a tablet with presence-aware tap of the Nymi Band.
Currently, fragmented technical infrastructures bog down the user with multiple authentication points, further exacerbating the password problem. Legacy systems need connectivity in order for it to translate into a unified user experience. The Nymi Connected Worker Platform (CWP) bridges connections between disparate systems through standards-based growth and a vast partner ecosystem, including Microsoft and Azure Active Directory. This is how we realized a world without passwords, but more and more people are getting behind solving this problem. If given the opportunity, how would you do it?
The spirit of World Password Day is really to remember and celebrate strong security, which is why we must shift to World Passwordless Day. There are many ways you can start this journey, but the first step is to think differently about how we can best solve the problem.
Interested in learning more? Connect with us to book a vendor-agnostic workshop on the benefits of a connected worker platform approach to going passwordless at your workplace.