Since the beginning of 2025, over 16 billion passwords have been hacked worldwide, and this number is only growing.1 This statistic represents a sobering fact: There are more compromised passwords than there are people on the planet. The phenomenon spans every major digital platform imaginable, including Facebook, Google, Apple, GitHub, and more.
The solution to this growing vulnerability is not merely to use stronger passwords. Instead, there is a need to change the paradigm through passwordless authentication. Without passwords, there can be no points of attack—a shift that most, if not all, enterprises desire. Passwordless authentication promises enhanced security, streamlined user experiences, and reduced operational costs. However, organizations struggle to implement this powerful defense due to factors such as cost and regulatory complexity. It is imperative that organizations understand the value of this powerful tool, or risk losing valuable data and consumer trust.
The Promise of Passwordless
Passwords have served as the standard authentication method for many years, and for a long time, they have done their job. However, as technology has evolved, passwords have remained unchanged.
Over the years, the shortcomings of passwords have become more apparent, working perfectly to the advantage of hackers. Research shows that 81% of data breaches are the result of weak or compromised passwords.2 As organizations continue to usher in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), these attacks are bound to be more sophisticated and frequent. The fallout for enterprises is severe, ranging from devastating financial losses and reputational damage to complex legal troubles and operational disruptions.
This stark reality is precisely why 92% of enterprises are drawn to the allure of a passwordless future, as its benefits outweigh the costs, promising not just a significant boost in security posture but also a substantial improvement to the experiences of employees and customers.3
Furthermore, without passwords being shared and reused, enterprises can genuinely adopt and build upon the zero trust framework, where trust is not inherently granted, regardless of network location. Passwordless methods facilitate this by providing stronger, continuous authentication signals, moving enterprises closer to a truly secure and resilient operational environment.
When implemented effectively, passwordless authentication can reduce friction, strengthen security, and improve efficiency without reverting to the traditional password paradigm.A Step-By-Step Approach
Employing passwordless authentication in an organization is not a simple task that can be implemented quickly. It necessitates a carefully crafted phased implementation designed to manage technical debt, ensuring compatibility with legacy systems while maintaining operational continuity. There are 3 phases to this approach:
Phase 1: Building the Foundation
First, organizations must identify every system or application that relies on passwords. This will give security teams a clear picture of the organization’s password ecosystem.
Once the organization is equipped with this information, the next step involves deploying multifactor authentication (MFA) everywhere possible.4 While this might not be a silver bullet for any password dilemmas, it still greatly enhances security.
Phase 2: Start With High-Risk Targets
After implementing MFA, a methodology must be designed to prioritize user roles with the potential to cause more damage in the event of an incident (e.g., administrators, executives). For example, an incident involving a user with extensive access rights, such as a finance lead, C-level executive, or system administrator, could cause significant damage due to the amount of access needed by these roles. By identifying and safeguarding these user roles, organizations can effectively reduce one of the largest avenues for security risk.5 This effort must be driven by the security team in seamless partnership with organizational department heads to provide strong and efficient adoption. Moreover, IT support desk employees must be offered special training in advance to deal with the unique onboarding and possible lockout scenarios of high-risk users.
Phase 3: Full Migration
This phase has 2 important goals. The first goal is to phase out password options/credentials from organizational systems and to fortify organizational security against any new threats that may arise in a passwordless environment. Once the passwords are removed, the organization must then standardize the passwordless methods piloted in the initial phases. This is where several popular authentication methods can be deployed. These methods include:
- Smart cards function similarly to credit cards; however, unlike traditional credit cards that feature a magnetic strip, smart cards are embedded with a small microprocessor chip that stores personal information. This information can be used to authenticate a user’s data and ensure that personal details are not easily stolen.
- Third-party identity providers (IdPs) store and manage identities. If an organization integrates an IdP into the login process, users will be redirected to that IdP, which authenticates and verifies their access rights with the organization’s IT systems before granting or denying entry to an application or resource.
- Persistent cookies are small files that allow websites to remember user devices, browser preferences, and associated online activities. Persistent cookies, as the name suggests, can store user information (e.g., usernames, passwords) for an extended time.
- Biometrics are the measurements of a user's unique physical and behavioral characteristics, all of which can be captured using advanced scanners or sensors to identify them uniquely. Common examples include fingerprint scanning, facial recognition, iris and retina scans, voice recognition, and hand geometry.
- Magic links are one-time login links sent to a user’s email address, or in some cases to another inbox, such as via an SMS message. The links are embedded with short-term tokens within the URL, which are used to authenticate users during the login process. When logging in, users need only to click or tap the link to gain access.
In the event of an emergency, specifically total system lockout, it is crucial to secure break-glass accounts with hardware tokens. These provide a last-resort access method that is not reliant on traditional passwords.6 These dedicated accounts, which are accessed through physical FIDO2 security keys, offer a solution that will not be impacted by the malfunctioning of the primary system.7
Full migration is considered complete after the organization has achieved a 90% adoption rate of passwordless authentication. This involves a complete adoption of passwordless authentication methods across the entire organization, ensuring that the organization moves away from a password-based environment. This eliminates password-based attack vectors and helps organizations reduce common threats, such as credential theft and phishing. This final phase provides a complete return on investment: a more robust and dependable security system, decreased cost due to fewer breaches and password resets, and an advanced login experience that bolsters both productivity and security culture.
The Risk of Going Passwordless
It is no secret that passwords are a persistent issue for cyberprofessionals and everyday users. Fernando Corbato, the mind behind passwordless authentication, admitted to this when he accumulated more than 100 different passwords8—simply too many passwords to recall. Moreover, passwords are easily phished, prone to credential stuffing, and costly for enterprises to reset.9
However, utilizing passwordless authentication is not the only solution. Though the overwhelming benefits it offers in improved user experience and security attract enterprises across industries, a thoughtful approach is required to ensure its effectiveness in practice. As such, organizations must consider several challenges and risk factors that could result in setbacks.
Biometric Data and the Cost of Irrevocable Compromise
Biometric authentication relies on unique features such as facial recognition and fingerprint ID, making it a robust access solution. However, there are several areas of risk associated with this method of authentication. A primary concern is the potential theft of the biometric template10 rather than the biometric data itself. If a cyberattacker achieves access to this template, they could generate a digital copy and use it to gain unauthorized access to enterprise systems.
Though the evolution of biometric liveness detection software11 has enabled resilience against malicious access, advanced attacks that employ 3D masks and high-resolution images are a critical concern. A real-world example of such an attack is the 2021 tax evasion case12 in China, where cybercriminals employed deepfake images and modified smartphones to evade the facial recognition system of the Chinese tax department. They were able to create fake tax invoices, which resulted in a loss of US$76 million. Organizations must employ secure storage solutions, such as encrypted templates, to overcome such threats.
Organizations can mitigate biometric template risk by implementing local template storage instead of using a centralized database.13
Security Concerns in Magic Links and OTPs
Methods such as one-time passwords (OTPs) and magic links provide an alternative method to conventional passwords; however, they may also introduce new vulnerabilities, including:
- Magic links—If an attacker captures the email that contains the magic link, they can use it to gain access to the account.
- SMS OTPs—Attackers can launch a SIM swapping attack to intercept OTPs by luring the mobile carrier into transferring the victim's mobile phone number to a new device.
To fortify the magic link process, organizations should enforce short expiration windows (typically 5–15 minutes), employ bind tokens to the originating session, and implement one-time enforcement to prevent replay attacks.14 For SMS OTPs, organizations should migrate toward app-based authenticators or phishing-resistant alternatives such as FIDO2 security keys.15
Integration Challenges: Legacy Systems and Architecture
A frequently cited hurdle to the adoption of passwordless authentication is the lack of compatibility with legacy applications.16 This is due to 2 factors:
- Protocol issues—Many business applications still use outdated protocols such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), which were initially built for traditional password-based systems, but struggle to perform the necessary functions for passwordless ecosystems.
- Custom application integration—Custom applications often do not use common, verifiable and industry accepted security protocols such as FIDO2. This lack of standardization makes it difficult to seamlessly integrate with passwordless identity platforms . Moreover, the nature of custom application’s architecture makes it difficult to incorporate further enhancements to pre-existing authentication workflows. Designing and maintaining modern solutions, such as passwordless authentication, results in additional complexity for security teams and introduces burden on an organization’s IT infrastructure.
In order to address protocol constraints and custom integration issues, an identity broker or federation gateway should be deployed which uses modern authentication protocols, such as OpenID Connect (OIDC) or FIDO2 to interact with legacy systems.17
Compliance Challenges
Navigating the legal landscape for biometric data is often difficult for organizations. Regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) vary significantly by region and industry, creating gray zones that necessitate careful legal review and robust compliance strategies.
This complexity poses a challenge for enterprises seeking to utilize biometric passwordless solutions or third-party IdPs that handle sensitive data. Gray zones will only increase as the regulatory landscape becomes more complex.
Moreover, organizations should conduct a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) as a prerequisite for deploying biometric authentication to help map regulatory obligations across jurisdictions.18 Organizations should also maintain comprehensive documentation of authentication workflows, consent channels, and data handling practices.
It is crucial to develop strong recovery methods that go beyond weak fallback options, such as helpdesk resets or knowledge-based questions. A robust authentication approach can still be jeopardized if the recovery protocol is poor. Attackers can take advantage of such weaknesses to launch attacks on recovery pathways, making them a central point in the security strategy. Despite these challenges, when implemented effectively, passwordless authentication can reduce friction, strengthen security, and improve efficiency without reverting to the traditional password paradigm.
Conclusion
Passwordless authentication is the next emerging force in protecting digital identities. It is an evolutionary step toward better security, enhanced user experience, reduced costs, and improved functionality. However, its implementation will not happen overnight. Passwordless authentication requires an intricate strategy that focuses on addressing current technical challenges.
With the passage of time, passwordless authentication may become a critical and natural aspect of everyday digital life. This transformation will be promoted by widely adopted standards such as FIDO2, allowing organizations to use a single, seamless login for every account. For the average user, this change will prove to be even more beneficial. The smartphone will become a part of digital identity through biometrics, providing secure and efficient access to banking, government, and private-sector services. Instead of getting stronger over time, passwords will inevitably become a relic of the past. Today’s cybersecurity professionals uplift security methods that work silently in the background, where trust is based on who you are, instead of what you remember.
Endnotes
1 Lapienyté, J.; “16 Billion Passwords Exposed in Record-Breaking Data Breach: What Does it Mean for You?,” Cybernews, 18 June 2025
2 Enzoic, “8 Scary Statistics About the Password Reuse Problem”
3 Security Magazine, “92% of Businesses Believe Going Passwordless is the Future,” 2 October 2020
4 Microsoft, “What Is: Multifactor Authentication”
5 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),"Implementing Phishing-Resistant MFA,"2022, USA,
6 Malik, F.; “Break Glass Explained: Why You Need It for Privileged Accounts,” Strongdm, 29 August 2024
7 Malik, “Break Glass Explained”
8 Yadron, D.; “Man Behind the First Computer Password: It's Become a Nightmare,” The Wall Street Journal, 21 May 2014
9 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]); US Department of Health and Human Services, “The Security Rule,”
10 Innovatrics, “Biometric Template Definition”
11 Terekhin, A.; “What Is Liveness Detection, and How Does It Help to Address Online Authentication Challenges?,” Regula, 28 March 2024
12 Unissey, “Facial Biometric Attacks: The Most Common Types of Fraud,” Unissey.com, 31 Jan. 2024.
13 FIDO Alliance, "FIDO Authentication and the GDPR," FIDO Alliance White Paper, 2019.
14 Open Web Application Security Project, "Authentication Cheat Sheet," OWASP, 2024.
15 National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Authenticator Management," NIST SP 800-63B-4, 2024.
16 Nadin, C.; “Passwordless Authentication With Legacy Systems: A Comprehensive Guide,” Getidee, 17 May 2023
17 National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Digital Identity Guidelines: Federation and Assertions," NIST SP 800-63C-4, 2024.
18 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]) (Text with EEA relevance), Article 35
Anant Wairagade
Is a senior cybersecurity engineer with more than 20 years of experience in software and security engineering, aiding IT organizations with digital transformation and helping them become more secure. In his career of more than 2 decades, Wairagade has worked for various financial services enterprises, where he led the design and development of several successful products in the security, finance, and financial CRM domain. At the beginning of his career, Wairagade worked as a technology consultant for major financial services enterprises and banks. Wairagade is a thought leader in enterprise integrations solutions. He is an expert in application programming interface (API)-based data connector development, Kafka, and messaging middleware. Wairagade is also an active member of several Industry open standard communities.