WWDC 2020 didn’t excite us very much. As there were more cosmetic updates than some real improvements. But Safari received one of the major upgrades this year. Safari 14 the version that will ship with macOS Big Sur, will support password-less logins. The functionality was confirmed from the macOS Big Sur developer beta release notes. What does password less login mean? Well, this means you will be able to login inside of Safari with the touch ID or face ID.
The functionality is built upon the WebAuth Component of the FIDO2 Standard. WebAuth is an API that aims to make online logins simpler and more secure. With passwords, there is always a risk of phishing attacks and other attacks. WebAuth makes use of Cryptography to use public keys or hardware keys to verify your identity. This standard works only if an individual website adds support for it.
But with Safari supporting this there will be a competition within the web for this technology. Apple has been working to make logins more secure for quite a while. In the previous release of iOS 13.3, Apple added support for the FIDO2 public keys authentication model. Google started using the same authentication for its accounts on iOS later this month. This new method of physical keys provides better security as hackers will need access to your physical keys to crack your accounts.
To Conclude, Apple devices will soon start supporting Web Authentication with touchID or FaceID with the Safari 14 update. This is a more secure and convenient way of authentication and will soon spread across the whole industry. Thanks for reading. Stay Safe! Stay Humble!.
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