World Password Day

The first day of May has numerous competitors for its patronage. It's May Day, of course, and it's International Labor Day, and apparently it's Global Love Day. Since 2013 it's also been World Password Day -- created by Intel to highlight concerns around digital security.

As of last year though there's been further competition from the upstart World Passkey Day. So are we finally seeing a serious challenge to the dominance of passwords as an authentication method?

A new survey of 2,300 adults worldwide reveals that 79 percent of Gen Z believe reusing the same password across multiple accounts is risky, however, 72 percent still admit to doing so.

The study from Bitwarden ahead of next Thursday's World Password Day also shows 59 percent of Gen Z admit to reusing an existing password when updating an account with a company that has experienced a data breach, this is compared to just 23 percent of Boomers.

Google launched its passkeys initiative on 2022's World Password Day and this year it's marking the day with some new updates.

It’s expanding Cross-Account Protection, an initiative where Google will share security notifications about suspicious events on your Google Account with the non-Google apps and services you use. Doing this will allow the other apps and services connected to your Google Account to use the security information to better protect your other accounts.

Last year we asked the question whether it was time to make World Password Day a thing of the past. But despite the rollout of passkey technology from giants like Google, passwords are still here a year on.

There's no doubt that the use of passwords is in decline, but they are proving more tenacious than many people predicted. Here are some expert views on the role of passwords in the wider digital security landscape.

As another World Password Day rolls around there’s the inevitable debate about whether the days of the password at the front line of security are numbered.

In recent years it has seemed that reports of the password's death have been greatly exaggerated. But as Google extends its rollout of passkey technology it seems that passwords may finally have had their day.

Every year, World Password Day serves as a reminder that passwords are the first line of defense against an ever-changing threat landscape. However, over the past few years, the notion that passwords actually do little to defend against hackers, has continued to snowball.  

This World Password Day, we asked a group of experts within the cyber security and wider technology field to discuss the topics of password hygiene, best practice, and the notion of a password-less future.

As we mark World Password Day, three of the major technology players are announcing a significant step on the road to a passwordless future.

Over the next year Google plans to implement passwordless support in Android and Chrome. Apple and Microsoft have also announced that they will offer support in iOS, MacOS, Safari, Windows and Edge.

Google is taking steps to make people's accounts more secure by announcing two initiatives to mark World Password Day.

Firstly it's automatically enrolling all Google account users in two-factor authentication. This will begin with accounts that are appropriately configured for this transition. You can see whether your account is ready in Security Checkup.

Today is World Password Day, in case you hadn't already noticed, a day to promote better password management and safer password choices.

With billions of sets of stolen credentials circulating on the dark web, naturally there is plenty of advice and opinions on offer from the industry, so here's a look at some of what experts are saying about passwords, the vulnerabilities they represent and how they might be replaced.

There will doubtless be a lot of comment surrounding today's World Password Day (watch this space) but to kick off we'll start with a new survey which shows that people aren’t keen on passwords at all.

The study from identity verification and authentication company Onfido reveals a variety of unpleasant activities that people would rather engage in than create a unique password.