Yubico previews its first ever biometric YubiKey at Microsoft Ignite

With system breaches coming thick and fast these days, it makes sense to take additional steps to protect your online accounts. One of the best ways to do this is with a YubiKey, a USB device which provides hardware-based two-factor authentication.

It’s a great -- and affordable -- way to protect your online accounts, and while you can also use it to log into a local account in Windows with the right software, you can’t use a Yubikey to log you into a Microsoft account (although the key can boost its security). That’s about to change. Today, at Microsoft Ignite, Yubico previewed its first ever security key with fingerprint recognition -- YubiKey Bio.

Announcing the new product, Ronnie Manning, Yubico’s Vice President of Communications said:

The YubiKey Bio delivers the convenience of biometric login with the added benefits of Yubico’s hallmark security, reliability and durability assurances. Biometric fingerprint credentials are stored in the secure element that helps protect them against physical attacks. The result? A single, trusted hardware-backed root of trust delivering a seamless login experience across different devices, operating systems, and applications. With support for both biometric- and PIN-based login, the YubiKey Bio leverages the full range of multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities outlined in the FIDO2 and WebAuthn standard specifications.

As with Yubico's other products, the YubiKey Bio will not require any batteries, drivers, or associated software, and will work the native biometric enrollment and management features in Windows 10 and Azure Active Directory.

"As a result of close collaboration between our engineering teams, Yubico is bringing strong hardware-backed biometric authentication to market to provide a seamless experience for our customers," said Joy Chik, Corporate VP of Identity, Microsoft. "This new innovation will help drive adoption of safer passwordless sign-in so everyone can be more secure and productive."

There’s no word on pricing or availability yet.