World Password Day: Google announces new features for access keys

To celebrate World Password Day, which is celebrated this Thursday (02), Google has announced a number of new features aimed at making the internet more secure through the use of “passkeys” (access keys).

Access keys became available in 2022, and some of their functionality will now be expanded in Google’s effort to reduce fraud by improving online security.

Improvements include expansion of Account Protection. This feature serves to protect access to non-Google accounts of the same user, even if another account is compromised.

Google will soon attract politicians, journalists, activists, etc. It will adopt access keys as an extra authentication option in its Advanced Protection Program (APP) targeting high-risk users such as:

As independent password manager vendors leverage password management APIs in Android and other operating systems, the use of passkeys will expand to general users.

Finally, the use of access keys will continue to grow as Google closes new partnerships with industry giants that have a large user base.

Access keys are good but not available on all services

Access keys are an excellent online authentication option due to their high efficiency. However, this feature is not yet available for all services. There are a few situations where traditional passwords are still necessary.

Therefore, it is worth taking a look at some tips for creating secure passwords, as cybersecurity solutions company Check Point Software Brasil warns:

• Create long and complex passwords: Passwords consisting of 12 to 16 characters are more secure, especially when numbers, letters and symbols are used together. Passwords from 18 characters onwards are virtually unbreakable;
• Avoid the use of personal data: It is a good idea not to use birthday, wedding date, house number, document number and similar data in your passwords;
• Generate unique passwords for different services: This prevents multiple accounts from being compromised in case of intrusion;
• Update your passwords periodically: Doing this prevents passwords from being compromised in case of data leaks;
• Two-factor authentication: This feature greatly reduces the chances of an account being hacked even if the password has already been discovered.

Passwords banned in the UK

Like it or not, traditional passwords are still widely used in the daily lives of billions of users around the world. However, when misused, the source is one of the biggest vulnerabilities in the online world.

Therefore, since last Monday (29), a law has come into force in the UK that blocks the use of some very popular passwords that are already considered extremely insecure. Here are the passwords banned in the UK:

• 123456;
• password;
• qwerty;
• Liverpool;
• 123456789;
• arsenal;
• 12345678;
• 12345;
• a BC 1 2 3;
• chelsea

The new British digital security law requires all manufacturers of devices that connect to the internet to comply with this measure.