Apple and the industry want Passkeys to become portable

Apple is working with other industry leaders on a system to make it much easier to swap passcodes between credentials access providers.

The big idea is to make it easier for people like you and I to switch between credential services without losing access to our accounts and passkeys. It’s a continuation of an ongoing commitment to expand support for passwordless sign in, in part to strengthen security.

Apple works with others

To do this, Apple is working with others in the FIDO Alliance to develop new industry specifications for secure credentials exchange. Once that work is done and the new spec becomes an adopted industry standard, then it will become much easier to avoid vendor lock-in when it comes to passkeys. The draft spec is available here.

The FIDO Alliance Credential Provider Special Interest Group also includes representatives from: 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Enpass, Google, Microsoft, NordPass, Okta, Samsung and SK Telecom.

What they say

Announcing the plan, the FIDO Alliance let loose a short string of statistics to illustrate just how widely used Passkeys have now become:

• Over 12 billion online accounts are secured with Passkeys.
• Their use makes sign-ins 75% faster and 20% more successful.

“With this rising momentum, the FIDO Alliance is committed to enabling an open ecosystem, promoting user choice and reducing any technical barriers around passkeys. It is critical that users can choose the credential management platform they prefer, and switch credential providers securely and without burden. Until now, there has been no standard for the secure movement of credentials, and often the movement of passwords or other credentials has been done in the clear,” said the organization.

What Apple said

Speaking back in 2022, Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing said, “Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”

Drafts are expected to be updated and published for public review often until the specifications are approved for implementation.

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