Why Passwordless Authentication is the Future | Syniverse

Why Passwordless Authentication is the Future

Passwords are fundamental to daily activity, as more of our lives are spent online. Amazingly, a study by Tech.co shows the average person has 100 passwords!

However, the end of the password is approaching, which should bring loud applause from both users and providers alike. Less friction for the user means more conversions for the provider. It's as simple as that.

In fact, despite their ubiquity, passwords are riddled with problems. These include re-use, sharing, password data leaks, and memorable password vulnerabilities.

Up to 52% of individuals reuse passwords across multiple sites, but not all sites, and 13% use the same passwords for all their accounts, according to a Google Online Security Survey.¹

Data breaches are very prevalent, with an alarming 14,371,221,947 email accounts being "pwned," meaning that a password or passwords have been revealed for these addresses.

Staggeringly, Cybernews reports that the top 3 most common passwords in 2024 were "123456," "123456789," and yes, you guessed it: "qwerty"!²

And then, there are the almost impossible rules providers impose on their customers to conform to a password regime. Some organisations appear to be blind to how their password stipulations can bamboozle customers.

So, passwords are a headache to use and not super effective at keeping customers protected, either. This is bad news for business. Although implementing passwords may seem to be a relatively inexpensive solution - spin up some code and you're off. Password problems can be corrosive to a range of business KPIs:

• Increased acquisition costs - Research indicates 50% of users require at least two attempts to create a password, decreasing sign ups.³
• Increased abandonment - 66% of under-35s have reported abandoning a service because they forgot the password. And 50% of under-35s have reported abandoning a purchase in the last month due to a forgotten password.⁴
• Customer care costs - Up to 50% of contact center volume can be attributed to customer login issues, according to Forrester.⁵
• Regulatory fines - Meta was hit with a €91M fine for a password leak.⁶
• Brand damage - It's not as easy to quantify, but as users of digital services we naturally gravitate to, and stay with, companies that care about keeping us safe and make it as effortless as possible.
• Financial loss due to fraud - Last but not least, there is the disastrous financial impact of breached security, with the FBI estimating $10B of internet crime losses in 2022.⁷
  

The Future

The issues this blog highlights should prompt enterprises to start considering passwordless solutions. Particularly as the younger demographic - your customers of the future - have heightened intolerance to passwords, as shown in this blog. The enhancement to CX that a passwordless approach delivers will propel a range of business KPIs, comfortably justifying the investment in the solutions that make this possible.

The good news is that there are many "post-password" solutions already being used.

Passkeys are likely to be the long-term winner, due to a combination of broad industry support and their security posture, while the contribution made by Frictionless Authentication is also increasing.

Magic Links deserve a mention, too. A simple solution with minimal dependencies is to send a one-time login link or OTP over SMS, WhatsApp, or RCS. Syniverse can advise you on how to leverage this method. We can also deliver any of the solutions mentioned in this blog, alone or in combination.

Contact a Syniverse expert today to discuss your passwordless future.

Interested in additional techniques to optimize your Mobile Identity and Authentication strategy? Check out our whitepaper, Cracking the Security Trilemma.

References:

1. Google. 2019. "Online Security Survey | Google/Harris Poll." Last modified February 2019. https://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/google_security_infographic.pdf.
2. Cybernews. 2023. "Most Common Passwords: Latest 2024 Statistics." Last modified November 27, 2023. https://cybernews.com/best-password-managers/most-common-passwords/.
3. Zuko. 2024. "How to Stop Passwords Causing Users to Abandon Your Form." https://www.zuko.io/blog/password-advice-for-online-forms#:~:text=From%20the%20above%20we%20can,on%20after%20the%20third%20attempt.
4. Techradar Pro. 2024. "Youth of Today Say Passwords are Old News, Passkeys are the Future." Last modified October 31, 2024. https://www.techradar.com/pro/youth-of-today-say-passwords-are-old-news-passkeys-are-the-future.
5. Forrester. 2011. "What is the Contact Center Cost of Login Issues?" Last modified July 6, 2011. https://www.forrester.com/blogs/11-07-06-what_is_the_contact_center_cost_of_login_issues/
6. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 2024. "Facebook Parent Company Fined €91M Over Password Storage." Last modified September 27, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgl8lerx85o
7. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 2022. "Internet Crime Report." https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2022_IC3Report.pdf.
   

Related posts:

Why You Need Multi-Factor Authentication

Completing the Puzzle of Trusted Communications

What is Frictionless Authentication and Why You Should Use It

eSIMs and SIM Swap: Will eSIMs Make SIM Swap Fraud More Likely?

Why You Need an Omni-Channel Authentication Strategy

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